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FORFORFORFORFORUMUMUMUMUM

FOR A BETTER

HYDERABAD

Fifteen Years of Activism & Service

Annual NumberAnnual NumberAnnual NumberAnnual NumberAnnual Number

2014-20152014-20152014-20152014-20152014-2015

Edited by: Smt. Sanghamitra Malik

Published by

FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490, St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

Cover Photo : Raja Deen Dayal & T. Swamy, Layout Design : Charita Impressions

Printed at: Deccan Press, Azamabad, Hyderabad. Ph: 040-27678411

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The Theme of World Environment Day

2015 (5th June) is:Sustainable consumption and production.

The slogan for the theme is "Seven Billion Dreams.One Planet. Consume with Care."

The FORUM’s Objectives are:

To be proactive and constructive.

To mobilize public opinion.

To stand up and make it heard on major issues exposing lack of concern or neglect of

environmental consideration.

To involve in decision-making on such issues.

The FORUM is focused on issues pertaining to Sustainable Development by highlightingthe ecological and environmental problems caused by uncaring and unthinking developmentalactivities disregarding required prior assessment.

The FORUM is functioning through various committees, and is networking with NGOs,bringing to light issues pertaining to Urban Planning, Urban Development & Management,Heritage Conservation, Lakes & Water Bodies, Parks - Forests & open space, Traffic &Transportation, Water & Air Pollution, Solid & Industrial Waste Management, RockFormations, Right to Information. Relevant issues are brought to the notice of the Authorities(and if required pressurizing them to take action) offering positive suggestions and optimumsolutions. The FORUM also files Public Interest Litigations whenever called for.

FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD

Advisors

Sri.B.P.R.Vitthal,IAS.,(retd.,) Former Chief Secretary, Govt.of Andhra PradeshSri.J.M.Lyngdoh,IAS., (retd.,) Former Chief Election Commissioner of India

Executive Committee

Sri. M. Vedakumar President

Sri. M.H. Rao Vice-President

Sri. Omim Maneckshaw Debara General Secretary

Dr. V. B. J. Rao Chelikani Treasurer

Smt. Sanghamitra Malik Joint Secretary

Dr. M. Mandal E.C. Member

Smt. Indira Lingam E.C. Member

Mrs. Frauke Quader E.C. Member

Dr. C. Kulsum Reddy E.C. Member

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Capt. J.Rama Rao, (I.N., Retd.,) V.S.M,Mr. R.Rajamani, IAS (R)Mr. Naram Krishan Rao, Former Chief Engineer, P.H.Mr. M.Vedakumar, Engineer, Urban & Regional PlannerMr. M.H.Rao, EnvironmentalistMr. Omim Maneckshaw Debara, IIPE, COPESM. Mandal, Managing Trustee,

Hum Sab Hindustani TrustDr. V.B.J.Chelikani Rao, President, U-FERWASDr. C.Kulsum Reddy, Concerned CitizensMs. Sanghamitra Malik, Apna WatanMs. Frauke Quader, Society to Save RocksMs. Indira Lingam, Jubliee Hills Civic ExnoraDr. Jasveen Jairath, Convenor, Concerned CitizensMr. R. K.Sinha, Retired Principal,

State Bank Inst. Of Rural Dev.Ms. Farida Tampal, State Director,WWFMr. Mazher Hussain, Director, COVAMr. K.S.Murthy, AdvocateMr. C.Ramachandraiah, CESSCapt. Manohar Sharma. President,

Uma Nagar Residents’ Welfare associationMr. S.Jeevan Kumar, President, Human Rights ForumSr. S.Selvin MeryMr. R.Ravi, SamataMr. Ali Asghar, Director, EED, Roshan VikasMr. M.Kamal Naidu, IFS(R),W.W.F.-APMr. B.Ramakrishnam Raju, Convenor, NAPM, APMr. Afzal, (PUCAAR)Mr. T.Dharma Rao, Chief Engineer (R)Mr. Mohammed Turab, Executive Secretary, COVA.Mr. Umesh Varma, Co-ordinator,Joint Action for WaterMr. K.Vijayaraghavan, MMTS Travellers GroupMr. K.Umapathy, IAS(R), INTACH.Mr. Asheesh Pitti, Birdwatchers Society of A.P.,Mr. Anil C. Dayakar, GAMANA.Mr. Narendra Luther, IAS (R), Society to Save RocksMr. Dipankar Dutta,Mr. RajkumarMr. Belal, Social ActivistMr. Venkateshwarlu, CHATRIMr. Chandra Prakash, KalakarMr. M.Gopal Krishna, IAS, Retd.,Mr. Sagar Dhara, Director, Ceram FoundationProf. K.Purshotham Reddy,Osmania UniversityMr. A.H.Moosvi, IFS(R), Former PCCF, AP

Dr. K.Babu Rao, Scientist, CCMBDr. K.L.Vyas, Osmania University.Mr. K.Prabhakar, Children’s Educational AcademyDr. Satyalakshmi Rao, Red Cross Institute of YogaMr. Saugath GanguliMs. Sheela Prasad,University of HyderabadMs. Arshea Sultana, Urban PlannerMs. Kanthi Kannan, The Right to Walk FoundationDr. Yerram Raju, Regional Director, PRMIAMr. Sajjad Shahid, Co-convenor, INTACH Hyd.ChapterMs. P.Anuradha ReddyDr. Chenna Basavaiah, Convenor, MADAMr. G.K.B.Chowdary, JETLMr. P.Janardhan ReddyMr. K.V.KrishnamachariLion. S.Dhananjaya, Social ActivistMs. Maya Anavartham.Dr. K. Mutyam Reddy, Former Registrar,

Mahatma Gandhi UniversityMr. T.Vijayendra, EnvironmentalistMs. G.Moti Kumari, AP.U.N.A.Ms. Asha Dua, Social ActivistDr. Arun K.Patnaik,CESSMr. Bada Binjafar, Social Welfare SocietyMs. Nandita Sen, Society to Save RocksMr. V.Nagulu,Osmania UniversityDr. D.Narasimha Reddy, President, Chetana SocietyMr. P.Narayan Rao, EnvironmentalistMr. K.V.Narayana, CESSMr. Rashid AhmedMr. K.Narasimha Reddy, Ex-MLA (Bhuvanagiri)Mr. Praveen, SPEQLMr. BeigMr. N.Rajeshwar Rao, LawyerMr. R.K.Rao, IFS (R) Former PCCF, A.P.Mr. G.B.Reddy, EnvironmentalistMr. BalrajMs. Saraswati Rao, M.S.D.Mr. A.Srinivas.Mr. Narasimham, ArchitectMr. Solaman Raju, GAMANAMr. H.D.Srinivas.Ms. S.KalyaniMr. T.ChakradharMs. Champak RaoCol. N.A.Kumar

FORUM MEMBERS, ASSOCIATED INDIVIDUALS & ORGANISATIONS.

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Networked:

* APNAWATAN * COVA * CHATRI * APSA * CONCERNED CITIZENS * CHETANA SOCIETY * CITIZENS’ FOR BETTER

PUBLIC TRANSPORT * CHILDREN’S EDUCATION ACADEMY (CEA) * CHELIMI FOUNDATION * DECCAN

DEVELOPMENT SOCIETY * DELOITTE * IAAB, Hyd * THE RIGHT TO WALK FOUNDATION * GAMANA *

HYDERABAD ACTION GROUP * HELP * INTACH, HYDERABAD CHAPTER * HUMAN WELFARE FOUNDATION *

INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERS, A.P. * DECCAN ACADEMY * JANA VIGNANA VEDIKA * MOVEMENT AGAINST

URANIUM PROJECT (MAUP) * MMTS TRAVELLERS GROUP * FORUM FOR A SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT *

PLANETARY SOCIETY OF INDIA * SAVE ROCKS SOCIETY * TARNAKA RESIDENTIAL WELFARE ASSOCIATION *

TURAGA FOUNDATION * UMANAGAR RESIDENT’S WELFARE ASSOCIATION * UNITED FORUM FOR RTI

CAMPAIGN * DECCAN COMMUNITY COLLEGE * FORUM FOR A BETTER VISHAKA * M.V.FOUNDATION * NAPM

* UNITED FEDERATION OF RESIDENTIAL WELFARE ASSOCIATIONS (U-FERWAS) * BIRD WATCHERS’ SOCIETY *

SOUL (Save Our Urban Lakes) * SAVE LAKES SOCIETY, Hyd * ITMC (Its Time to Make a Change) * APEC GROUP * HERITAGE

WATCH * V.K.DHAGE NAGAR WELFARE SOCIETY, Hyd * SAAKSHI (NGO) * SPEQL

Mr. S.R.Vijayakar.Ms. Devi Rao.Mr. S.Srinivasa Reddy, Project Director, APSAMr. Adarsh SrivastavaMr. Mahesh, Musi lifeMr. Vishnu Kumar, SPA, JNTUMr. Raavi VenugopalMr. S.Q.MasoodMohd. Kaleem AhmedMr. M.A.ThariqMr. Vipin BenjaminMr. L. ShatrugnaMr. Abhishek RichariaMr. Syed Khaled Shah ChistyMr. Murali SagarMr. Naemi FuhramannMr A. Raja SharmaMr. N.V.WonkarMr. P.C.MenonMr. Abbas MoosviMr. Rajender ReddyMr. Mortuza MoosviMr. P.S.N. PrasadMs. Latha RaoMr. R. Sheshagiri RaoDr. Sarosh BastawalaMr. B. Shiva SrinivasMr. V. Yella ReddyMr. S. Rahul RaoMr. Omer KhanMr. KamalakarMs. AshwiniMr. G. Nagamohan, Artist

Ms. Padma BalachandranMr. Iliyas Ahmed KhanMr. V.Dakshina MurthyMr. Mirza Zubin BeigMr. Navin ShahMrs. Meera DeshpandeMrs. A.Sita DeviMd.AshfaqMr.BaswarajMrs.R.IndiraMr. Subhash ReddyMr. Hari BabuMr. Siddharth GoelMr. RohanMr. Praveen IndooriMr. MohanlalMr. Subhash ReddyMr. P.Srinivas RaoMr. JayaveerMr. D.KrishnaMr. Anwar KhanMr. RaghunandhanMr. S.Gopal RaoMr.D.P.Reddy,TDFMr.Kakarla Venkata Ratnam, CPREEC, HydMrs.A.Shiva Rani, APSAMr.M.Padmanabha Reddy, Social ActivistMr.Pittala Srisailam, Social Activist,

Co-convenor,Telangana Journalist’s ForumMr.Ilyas Ur Rehaman, Social ActivistMr.D.Venkatesh, Social ActivistMr.Sudhakar Goud, Former Head, British CouncilMr.Koppula Narsanna, Social Activist

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CONTENTS

FOREWORD

By. Mr. Vedakumar. M 7

WATER MANAGEMENT

Water Policy for Hyderabad: Need of the Moment by Dr. D. Narasimha Reddy 9

Use Water With utmost care by Smt.Sanghamitra Malik 12

Water Conservation: The Need Of The Hour by Sri.O.M.Debara 13

WATER BODIES AND LAKES

Please have Mercy on me by Smt.Sanghamitra Malik 15

A representation dtd. 17.11.2014 was submitted to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of

Telangana by Forum on the Idea of High rises around Hussainsagar lake- by

M.Vedakumar, President, FBH 18

A representation dtd. 22.11.2014 was submitted to the Hon’ble Chief Minister of

Telangana by Forum on the Proposed tower in Sanjeevaiah Park- by

M.Vedakumar, President, FBH 21

A representation dtd. 26.11.2014 was submitted to the Chief Secretary of Telangana

Government by Forum on the identification of 40 spots for Skyscrapers in

Hyderabad and on emptying of Hussainsagar in summer- by M.Vedakumar,

President, FBH 23

URBAN PLANNING AND GOVERNANCE

An Agenda for Further Democratisation of the City by Dr.Rao V.B.J.Chelikani 25

Tools to strengthen people’s participation in grassroot self-governance by Sri.Sagar Dhara 34

ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT

Dedicated pithead thermal power plant for Telangana is a bad idea by Sri.Sagar Dhara 38

Keep the Climate, Change the Economy by Sri.Sagar Dhara 42

Practical ideas for a greener city by Sri.Sagar Dhara 46

Environmental Protection: Need of the Hour by Dr. Narayan Sangam 49

Global Warming by Kumari Adhya Kartik 50

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"Every one thinks of changing the World.But no one thinks of changing himself."

- Leo Tolostoy

HERITAGE

Main Wahi Purana Imli Ka Darakth by Smt.Sanghamitra Malik 51

A representation dtd. 19.3.2015 was submitted to the Chief Secretary to

Telangana State Govt. by Forum on the Proposed shifting of the

Telangana State Govt Secretariat to Erragadda T.B & Chest Hospital Site by

M.Vedakumar, President, FBH 52

A representation dtd. 8.4.15 was submitted to the Commissioner, HMDA by Forum

for the advise of the disposal of the Minutes of the 113th Meeting of the Heritage

Conservation Committee dated 06.09.2011on the Proposed shifting of the

Telangana State Govt Secretariat to Erragadda T.B & Chest Hospital Site

with a Note on Chest Hospital- by Dr.M.Mandal,FBH 53

A representation dtd. 15.5.15 was submitted to the Commissioner, HMDA by Forum

Twin towers to come up in Osmania General Hospotal ( OGH ), HB No II B,

Sl no 61. v/ report in Deccan Chronicle dt 9.4.15- by Dr.M.Mandal,FBH 54

SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT

Waste Management… Guidelines for segregation of Waste by Smt.Sanghamitra Malik 57

ECOLOGY-FORESTS-TREES

Trees and Human History by Dr.K.Babu Rao 60

Bamboo- New Urban Opportunities by Dr.P.Sudhakar 63

GENERAL

Kaha gaya vah mera bachpan ka Suhaana Hyderabad by Balakrishna B. Mehta 66

REPORT ON FORUM’S 14th ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS on 05-06-2014 71

GLIMPSES FROM FORUM’S PAST ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATIONS 72

STATUS OF COURT CASES PENDING AS ON 30-04-2015 73

GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT 76

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Foreword

M. Vedakumar,Civil Engineer, Urban & Regional Planner

President, Forum For A Better Hyderabad

Continuing its relentless service and mission towards bringing social

awareness on various intangible issues of the city, the Forum for a Better

Hyderabad completes a successful year, with much satisfaction and

enthusiasm. During the period, the Forum could sustain its stance on Citizen

Participation in Good Governance, Environment Conservation, Climate

Change, Water Conservation, Heritage Protection and many other issues.

The Forum was successful in liaising with past and new governments

for ultimate solutions for many prevailing issues of the city. Hyderabad

city is an abode for many aspiring youngsters and an amicable destination to

live a better quality of life. However, Dr Chelikani expresses his concern

over the civil society for not being given enough space to express itself

individually as well as collectively in civic, cultural, social and economic

matters in the city. At this juncture, he feels, there is an urge for proper

utilization of intellectual human capital of the city by encouraging

participation of its citizens and local institutions in local governance.

One of the major concerns of Urban Hyderabad is the increasing demand

for drinking water for the twin cities. Many political parties and governments

have been keeping the issue on the back burner, only to raise one’s voice

later for respective political motives.

Now, the major question is whether water is to be considered as a natural

resource or economic advantage? Dr D Narasimha Reddy, Convenor, Joint

Action for Water, highlights some of the significant changes that need to be

considered to avoid any catastrophe in future. One such suggestion includes:

bringing out Annual Water Status Report on Hyderabad, protection of

Surface Water Resources and Water-Oriented Development Plan.

The Forum for a Better Hyderabad has been fighting for protection of

water bodies and Lakes in the city, since more than a decade and could

successfully initiate “Save Musi River Campaign”. It was also in the frontline

for raising its voice against idol immersion in Hussain Sagar Lake and

uncontrollable encroachments around the Lake. In this context, Sanghamitra

Malik beautifully essayed the plight of Hussain Sagar, in its own words.

Omim Maneckshaw Debara has some practical suggestions to preserve

drinking water and to avoid wastage. The writer suggests for adopting new

cisterns at individual households, which could reduce the water consumption

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8

for toilets, kitchen and other unavoidable places. Rain Water Harvesting

and re-utilization of water used in the household could be another solution

for water conservation.

Global Warming is leading to depletion of ground level water, water

bodies and Lakes. Hyderabad is vulnerable to climate change and Forum for

a Better Hyderabad has been working on bringing out relative awareness on

the issue. Nine year old Adhya Karthik expresses her legitimate concern for

Global Warming and urges for united attempt to protect the Mother Earth.

Expressing major concern over environment conservation, Dr Narayan

Sangam opines strongly on environment protection and expects a need for

change in every citizen, civic body and the government.

If garbage waste and water depletion are worsening the situation of

Hyderabad City, inadequate electricity supply is another setback for leading

a better life in the city. In response to various proposals on power generation,

Sagar Dhara rejects the proposal for setting up a Pithead Thermal Power

Plant for Telangana, due to its extreme vulnerability. Here, the writer has

come up with an authentic justification for the rejection.

Sudhakar expresses the need for the use of Bamboo, which has many

positives usages. The need of the hour is to make Bamboo ubiquitous.

Fortunately, Bamboo has a major role to play in urban areas as well such as,

Urban Forestry, Avenue Plantations, Bund Protection, Greenery around

high ways and service roads or live fences cum crash guards.

Babu Rao expresses his concern towards the destruction of world’s forest,

ever since humans realized the importance of forests to sustain life on earth,

as we are organically linked to the biosphere and no science and technology

can provide a substitute for that link. Nevertheless the human greed for

prosperity has ignored the fact.

Every year, the Forum for a Better Hyderabad has been campaigning

against many of the above mentioned areas of concern. Heritage Conservation

had always been a major concern for the Forum and it could even preserve

many historical buildings and monuments from demolition.

Sanghamitra Malik submits the plea of the oldest Tamarind tree in the

Osmania Hospital compound, through a beautiful Urdu poem. This heritage

tree has just become a haven for disposing of hospital waste. Instead of

preserving the tree, the authorities were planning to uproot it.

The Forum for a Better Hyderabad appreciates its intellectuals and

enthusiastic participants for their voluntary participation and will continue

to encourage and support many in future.

* * *

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9

Water is an important resource for life. It is

important for ecology, environment, animals, all

living species, and human beings. Every human

being needs and has a right to water, as water is a

common resource. With scarcity, water is

increasingly becoming a goal and a tool. With

competition, horizontally and vertically, among

all living species, and among all strata of human

beings, it is important for us to arrive at a method

or formula for judicious and appropriate usage.

This requires policies, legal and within a

necessary institutional framework.

Water is required for life, food, health and

development. Being a limited resource, how can

we balance the many conflicting interests

involved in water allocation? How can we

protect the environment? How can we prevent

waste and encourage behaviour that supports

sustainable use of our water resources? How can

we provide an equitable distribution system?

These are some of the questions that make water

one of the hottest policy issues today.

The challenge of bringing such a policy, legal

and institutional framework, in India, is quite

big. In the past, these water policies were not

reviewed, as closely as now. It needs to be

reviewed and has to be done through a

consultative process. The present approach of the

government is very defensive, and not expansive.

It is not inclusive, but partisan. The whole

consultation process for a better and acceptable

water policy needs to be enunciated. Otherwise,

water is going to decide the politics and

development of many regions and sections of

people. The more contentious issues are:

Water Policy for Hyderabad: Need of the Moment

Dr. D. Narasimha ReddyConvenor, Joint Action for Water

1. Should water be considered a natural

resource or an economic advantage? Will

this consideration change, according to the

context?

2. Should water be priced? Whether pricing

will lead to judicious usage of water, or

create inequity in access to water, and thus

redefine the empowerment process?

3. Can we continue to use water, as if

everything is normal, and continue to ignore

the impacts of pollution and excess usage of

both ground and surface water?

4. What is the learning process for every one

of us from the problems related to water?How do we bring awareness among every

section of society, in order to bring them

on par with participation over decisions and

appropriate usage?

It is high time that we need to start

introducing water budgeting, as a tool, for

assessment and allocation for different uses.

Government, both central and State, should start

presenting water budgets, as an annual exercise.

In the initial stages, this would be very basic, with

lot of problems in data and errors. However, over

a period, this would increasingly bring realization

of a limited resource, awareness on the need to

have proper allocation, decide on priorities and

also inculcate a habit/practice of appropriate

usage.

It will bring into reality the universally

accepted vision of ‘making water everybody’s

resource and concern’.

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Hyderabad: Few Get WaterHyderabad’s piped water supply is 340 mgd

per day from various sources out of which 30%

of the supply is unaccounted. Quantity and

quality issues continue to plague the system. And

the most affected are the slum dwellers and city

poor. Distribution is varied across the city.

Within this scenario, areas under the Municipal

Corporation of Hyderabad jurisdiction have

better water supply when compared to the

colonies on the outskirts. Residential areas under

Secunderabad Cantonment Board also do not get

sufficient quantities of water for their needs.

People struggle to collect water due to low

pressure and irregular supply timings. Five

different sources are unable to quench the thirst

of Hyderabad. Construction of Krishna phase

III and Godavari phase I supply systems are in

the process. However, these have been planned

and designed for the current gap in supply and

demand. Water quality levels are challenged

constantly by various factors and field conditions.

Water-borne diseases are increasing across all

seasons, and especially during the rains.

Contamination is addressed with chlorination at

the water treatment plant but the levels decline

and standards are not maintained always. Water

Board operates only 550 tankers while some are

operated by GHMC and the rest are private.

Management of water supply continues to

be a source of concern. Grappling with various

issues, including billing, corruption, volumes,

human resources, emergence of a sustainable,

integrated management structure continues to

elude the decision-makers.

As a result, dependence on groundwater is

very heavy. Groundwater is the most over-

exploited resource. According to estimates, about

30% of the residents in poor communities depend

on groundwater as an alternative source and are

left high and dry with diminishing levels.

Regulation of ground water is not on expected

levels, despite specific laws and provisions.

Private suppliers are increasing every day. Water

industry is growing, at the cost of environment

and public economics. Consequently, even the

poor are forced to buy water.

The Draft of Extended HMDA Plan-2031

integrating 16 extended municipalities into the

GHMC, has cited the growth rate of the

population in the next ten to twenty years with

no mention of water resources or supply for the

increasing requirement. Draft plan also quoted

the enhancement in the per capita need of water

but why and how it will be catered to is absent.

All other civic amenities find a mention of

resource and provision. Only water has been

avoided. Absence of water availability in the plan

has been quoted too often as the available

resources are unable to provide for the current

population.

The National Water Policy, 2012 states that

economic principles should guide pricing of

water but then this principle cannot be applied

to water allocation to various sectors. There is

no clear mention of water allocation priorities

which is one of the important aspects of water

distribution. Allocation has to be based on

availability and requirement/demand. The draft

just mentions on the availability of safe drinking

water. Policy recommends privatization that

would include all cost: resource, maintenance and

service delivery resulting in increase of tariff for

supply posing the question of the affordability

of the poor.

The policy has no mention of groundwater.

Acts are available for permission to dig borewells

but not on overall management of the resource.

Groundwater as resource for common good has

been stated by the Central government recently

but the working methods are still in the nascent

stage and some States are yet to give their consent.

Emergence of a consensus among all States

requires time and the process of actual

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implementation would be prolonged.

While national water policy is too distant,

and has not been able to establish direction for

urban water management, integrated thinking on

water situation of Hyderabad is an imperative.

Hyderabad had a water surplus situation

decades back, in a semi-arid region, indicating a

thorough plan. Over a period of 4 decades, it has

slipped back into a spiral of water scarcity and

exploitation. Over dependence on groundwater

and supplies from far-off places would generally

lead to a situation of discrimination. Access to

water in Hyderabad is becoming limited to the

rich and ‘paying’ classes. Political and economic

classes continue to call the shots in water

distribution. In a democracy, people have to be

strengthened.

Hyderabad Metro Water Board needs to

improve its act by being transparent. While the

increasing usage of RTI tool to get information

would help in increasing awareness and help in

keeping public vigilance over water resources,

Hyderabad Metro Water Board should adopt a

pro-active approach in providing information on

its performance, finances, water infrastructure,

its future plans, etc. With better systems of

information collection and dissemination of the

same, water distribution can be more equity

oriented and decrease the concerns over delays,

corruption and inequity in distribution. Poor

people should also know how water distribution

is happening in Hyderabad.

Importantly, following changes are needed:

1 . Water-oriented Development Plan and

permit system needs to be developed in

Hyderabad.

2. Hyderabad Master Plan which does not

include any plan for Ground Water should

be stopped.

3. There should be an Annual Water Status

Report on Hyderabad, developed and

presented for discussion in State Legislature

4. Area sabha-based water management and

distribution plans should be developed and

implemented through consolidation at the

city level

5. Surface water sources such as cheruvus and

kuntas should be protected, even while rain

water harvesting methods are encouraged

through various policy instruments.

photo : T. Swamy

Hussain Sagar surplus wier Dt. 03-06-2015

photo : T. Swamy

Hussain Sagar surplus wier Dt. 03-06-2015

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Do you pay enough attention to the water available around you?

You drink, you cook, you wash, you bathe and clean with water available to you.

We have to look after this water and make sure there is enough for everyone,

Only 3% of earth’s water is fresh water and the rest is the salty water in the ocean.

We must use water carefully and not waste a single drop of it,

We must attend to leaking taps at home and build rainwater harvesting pits.

Drinking, cleaning, brushing, washing, flushing and bathing adds up to a lot of water,

As the population on this earth is growing, there is demand for more water.

Human beings, plants, birds and animals all need water to survive in this world,

Humans should reduce the use of water and reuse and recycle it to help this world.

If we reuse and recycle water, there will be less pressure on our water resources,

We have to stop wastage of water and always learn to conserve.

We should refrain from cutting down trees and plant as many saplings as we can,

We must not encroach on our water bodies or we’ll be left with water only in jerry cans!!!

Use Water With Utmost Care

Sanghamitra Malik

And every drop counts.

Please do not waste water

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Water is an important natural resource andis the very basis of our life. We use water fordrinking, irrigation, industry, transport and forthe production of hydro-electricity etc. Water isa cyclic resource which can be used again andagain after cleaning. The best way to conservewater is its judicious use.

In an area as ours, wherever water has beenbrought for irrigation, polluted tracts haveemerged, rendering the soil infertile. Wastefuluse of water should be checked. Sprinklerirrigation and drip irrigation can play a crucialrole in conserving scarce water resources in dryareas. Drip irrigation and sprinkles can saveanywhere between 30 to 60 per cent of water.

Only 0.5 per cent is under drip irrigationand 0. 7 per cent under sprinklers. There is large-scale pollution of water as a result ofindustrialization and urbanization. This trendhas got to be checked.

There is a great demand for water inindustries and the industrial sector offers greatopportunities to conserve water. The economyin water-use in this sector will have two benefits.Firstly, the saved water may be used to meet thedemand in other sectors. Secondly, the effluentthrown in the water bodies will be less.

Water in most industries is used for coolingpurposes, thus, it is not necessary to use freshpotable water. Instead, the recycled water maybe used for this purpose. By using the recycledwater over and over again, fresh water can beconserved. Demand for water for domestic usecan also be reduced. For example, in the oldcisterns used for flushing toilets use about 12.5liters of water per flushing. The new cisterns usednowadays require only 5 to 7 liters of water foreach flushing.

Thus if each individual household adopts thenew cisterns, the amount of water consumption

Water Conservation: The Need of the hour

Omim Maneckshaw Debara

for flushing can be reduced to half. Similarly, ifraw water is used for cleaning, gardening, etc., alot of fresh potable water can be saved. Waterused in kitchen sink, wash basin and in bathroomcan be collected into a tank and reused forflushing toilet and gardening also.

Rain Water Harvesting:Rainwater Harvesting is a way to capture

the rain water when it rains, store that waterabove ground or charge the underground and useit later. This happens naturally in open ruralareas. But in congested, over-paved metropolitancities, we need to create methods to capture therain water.

Rainwater harvesting is a very ancienttechnique known to have existed for over 4000years. This technique is being revived today togive back to nature what we take from it.

Rain water harvesting - a simple, economicaland eco-friendly method of water conservationis an ideal solution to recharge the ground water.

The rainwater that falls on the surface/ rooftop is guided to borewells or pits or new/ old/abandoned wells through small diameter pipesto recharge the underground water which canbe used later whenever required.

Rainwater can be harvested to the extent of55,000 litres per 100sq. metres area per year fromrooftops .

In many areas, rainwater harvesting is anecessity, not a luxury. Most desert areas havelittle or no fresh water resources. As a result,they must depend on rainwater for most of theirwater needs. Rainwater harvesting is alsorequired on all new constructions to aid waterconservation.

Research Scientists estimate that merelycapturing the rain water and run off on 2 percent of India’s land area could supply 120 liters

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of water per person.As such much effort is to be made to

popularise the concept of rain water harvestingat the grass roots level.

In cities, rain water available from roof topsof buildings, paved and unpaved areas goes waste.This water can be recharged to aquifer and canbe utilized gainfully at the time of need. The rainwater harvesting system needs to be designed ina way that it does not occupy large space forcollection and recharge system.

Roof top rain water harvesting can be a veryeffective tool to fight the problem of watershortage particularly in urban areas. Roof toprain water harvesting depends upon the amountof rainfall and the roof top area.

More the amount of rainfall more is theharvested water from roof top. Similarly, largeramount of roof top rain water is harvested fromroofs with large area.

Artifical Recharge To Ground Water :Artificial recharge to ground water is a

process by which the ground water reservoir isaugmented at a rate exceeding that obtainingunder natural conditions or replenishment. Anyman-made scheme or facility that adds water toan aquifer may be considered to be an artificialrecharge system.

RAINWATER HARVESTING is aprocess involving collection and storage of rainwater (with the help of artificially designedsystem) that runs off natural or man-made

catchment areas e.g. roof top, compounds, rocksurface or hill slopes or artificially repairedimpervious/semi-pervious land surface.Undoubtedly a number of factors contribute tothe amount of water harvested e.g. the frequencyand the quantity of rainfall, catchmentscharacteristics, water demands and the quantumof runoff, and above all speed and ease withwhich the rainwater percolates through thesubsoil to recharge the ground water.

Due to deforestation and the consequentecological imbalance, the water level beneath theground is being depleted day by day. As knownto all, the constant rising demand of water supply,especially from the urban areas does not matchwith the surface water sources, as a result ofwhich the water reserves beneath the groundlevel are overexploited. This consequently resultsin the water level depletion. Thanks to the selflessendeavour and untiring efforts made by thescientists in the field of hydrogeology, specialtechniques for recharging ground water levelhave been developed recently.

Water harvesting, apart from recharging theground water level, increases the availability ofwater at a given place at a given point of time. Italso reduces the power consumption as 1 m risein water level results in saving of 0.4 KWH ofelectricity (as per recent finding). It furtherreduces the run off which chokes the storm waterdrains, reduces flooding of water on the roads,improves the quality of water and reduces thechances of soil erosion.

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I am a true blue Hyderabadi.I was born even before this city was born,

Way back in 1562 when Ibrahim Quli Qutb ShahGave orders to dig a very big tank

Right in this spot which later became the focal point of Hyderabad.His son-in-law, Hussain Shah Wali got me dug up.

After four long years, channels brought in waterAnd I was filled up to the brim with fresh clean water

All of which came from the serene River Musi.I was a huge piece of water body with the city around me,

In 1591, I was told that a new city was born.

It was Ibrahim Qutb Shah’s son Muhammad Quli Qutb Shah,Who had established the garden city of HyderabadAnd also a grand monument known as Charminar.I have been sitting in this very place since my birth.

There is no way that I can take a few stepsAnd move around to get a better view of this cityWhere I live and may be will even HAVE to die! Those were beautiful days when people of this city

Came to the bund and enjoyed the cool breeze in the evening.

People were always dressed in colourful clothes.They would take long walks on the bund,

Chatter away about so many things I could not hear.They would even eat some things and feel happy.

Please Have Mercy On Me

Sanghamitra Malik

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Then they would all go away and I would be left alone,Only to look up at the sky and speak to the shining moon and stars.

The people who visited me were very kind and gentle.Never did they ever throw even a tiny piece of trash

Into my vast clear body to make me feel unclean.I was squeaky clean, cool and transparent.

There were some aquatic creatures like varieties of fish.They would swim around and it kind of felt ticklish.

Gradually as the years passed by, I noticed some changes.More people, more buildings and quite a few vehicles around me,

I was still taken care of and filled up with clean water.

People visited the Tank Bund for Bade Miyan’s ‘kebabs’,Some roasted groundnuts and also Kwality ice-cream.

The two boat’s clubs came up on either side of the bund,Visiting gardens and boat rides on me became popular too.

More than thirty years back, I lost a part of myself,The Khairatabad flyover came up and some other structures.

As though that was not enough, I was being filled upTo make yet another new road called the Necklace Road.

The width of the road on the bund was increased considerablyAnd statues of several important personalities came up on one side.

A huge big Buddha statue was brought and after a mishapIt was later successfully perched up in the middle of my body.

All around I could see new buildings coming up,More and more people and oh so many vehicles.Gradually places of entertainment and feasting,

Came up in large numbers frequented by many people.I noticed that my massive body was shrinking in size,

I was being filled up with huge mounds of mudOn several sides and corners of my expansive body.

I also found that I was no more the clean sparkling lakeBut a somewhat turbid expanse of an unhappy water body.

People threw flowers and trash into my body.Garbage was being thrown at me from the eating joints

That had come up in large numbers all along the Necklace Road.Domestic and Industrial waste was being let into my body.

I became dirtier day by day and my own stink suffocated me.

Mammoth sized POP idols of Gods were all dumped into my body.The iron rods would hurt me, it would pain me but no one cared!

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I was getting full of water hyacinth as well as algae.The poisonous chemicals in the paints made it difficult to breathe.

All the fish that would wriggle around in my bodyHad long since bid farewell to me and left for heaven!

There was this Minister’s Road side of me which was pathetic.Everyone including officials were encroaching and filling up

Any stretch of my watery body that they could encroach upon.Hotels and hospitals let out all their waste into my stomach!

I felt happy only when they held some water sports.Those regattas and all such sailing competitions.

Otherwise, I just cried silently hoping that I would be heard,That someone out of the citizens or officials would see my plight

But that was not to be and then I found that I am ill!

I don’t smoke nor drink, I don’t eat fatty food or have diabetes.What then is my problem? Why is it that I am dirty and smelly?

The authorities in this city don’t want me any more!They have made channels into my sides to facilitate outflow

Of water from my body which has already shrunk to a quarter.

They are forcing outflow through the broken or surplus weirsUnder the road bridge to drain out water from my body.

They are actually stealthily drawing out water from my bodyAnd trying every possible way to dry me to death!

The water they are drawing is like blood being drawn outFrom the veins of living creatures and humans are doing this.The government is draining me in the name of cleaning me.

They are ignoring the Court Order, the Master plan and WALTA.They, who should be taking care have become cruel

And heartless and drying me up to death, to be forgotten!!!

I pray to you to have mercy on me, to think of the good daysThat the people of the twin cities and I have had together always.

I ask you officials to stop all the domestic and industrial wasteFrom entering my watery body and letting in only clean water

That is adequately treated and fit enough to flow in me,So that I once again turn colourless, odourless and clean.

Very, very CLEAN!!!***

(From:- A sick and dying Hussain Sagar, ‘an old citizen of Hyderabad’who wishes to live)

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FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490,St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

&

CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS

To Dt: 17.11.14

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Telangana,

Government of Telangana

Telangana Secretariat

Hyderabad.

Honourable Chief Minister,

Sub:Idea of High rises around Hussainsagar lake

***

We refer to the recent reports in various newspapers of a plan about building high rises around

Hussainsagar lake. Some locations have also been mentioned and government officials have been

asked to work on drawing a detailed project. The locations mentioned are : ( Deccan Chronicle,

13.11.14, pp 1,2 ). The vacant lands belonging to DBR Mills on Lower Tank Bund , opposite Hotel

Marriott, between Necklace Road and the railway track, near Ambedkarnagar and few other areas,

areas around Sanjeevaya Park, Secunderabad Boats club land and the Jalavihar. ( The Hindu dt

13.11.14, p 4 ) - officers to survey every square foot of land surrounding the lake, starting from the

Boat club, Necklace road , Jalavihar, Ambedkar Nagar, Sanjeevaiah Park, Sailing Club,in

Secunderabad, Marriott Hotel, DBR Mills, Lower Tank Bund and secretariat and submit a report

to the government. ( TOI dt 13.11.14 ): Vacant land around Hussainsagar at the Hyderabad Boat

Club, Necklace Road, Jala Vihar, Ambedkarnagar, Sanjeevaiah Park, Secunderabad Sailing Club,

Marriott Hotel, DBR Mills, Lower Tank Bund and Secretariat were shown through Google maps.

……… highrises can be constructed in vacant land at DBR Mills, Jala Vihar, Sanjeevaiah Park and

opposite Marriott Hotel and even between Necklace Road and the railway tracks. …. officials to

come up with details pertaining to the vacant lands and submit a report. The high rises would be

developed on the lines of Petronas Towers in Malaysia and those near Mumbai coast for which

many infrastructure giants would be invited to take up the projects. A detailed study to be done on

whether such projects would be taken up by the state government or handed over to private firms.

………. no construction would be taken up in those areas in Necklace Road where people relax.

……… rehabilitation and relocation would be worked out for slum dwellers in places like

Ambedkarnagar, Indira Park, Jala Vihar and near Sanjeevaiah Park if skyscrapers are constructed in

these areas…. exclusive buildings would be constructed and the dislocated would be accommodated

in those towers. The Government would even relax building norms to facilitate the skyscrapers.

….. changes in existing regulations could be effected by the government..

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2. We respectfully submit that although we are not opposed to construction of High rises in

Hyderabad, subject to compliance with rules, regulations, and norms in consonance with the

safeguards provided by our Constitution, we are opposed to any plan of building high rises that fall

within the Shikam land of the Lake or its original water body , or which are likely to affect in any

manner the quality of the lake. The Lake has shrunk from its original spread over 1664 hectares for

the purpose of supplying drinking water ( SC-appointed committee reports mention 571.42 acres to

be preserved) to nearly 350 hectares due to encroachments both by the land grabbers and the State

Government ; thus large areas around Hussainsagar were in fact lake beds, and have been encroached

upon. Many, if not all, the locations for such projects fall within the Shikam land of the Lake. We

refer to the SC-appointed committee report, chapter 4 re the Lake area.

3. Further, the proposed high rises, and the consequential increase in activities, will further add

to the increasing pollution, air , ground and noise, of the lake and its surrounding area which is like

a precinct, by increasing traffic and parking problems; disposal of garbage, sewerage water, etc. The

core value of Hussainsagar lake will be further diminished.

4. Hyderabad is fast becoming one of the most polluted cities , and so far no concerted plan for

diminishing pollution has been spoken of.

5. While we shall study the matter in depth as and when the contours of the project become

clearer, and submit our further comments, we observe that the contemplated project will run directly

counter to the recommendations of the Supreme Court-appointed Committee, particularly, those

under 6.1 to 6. 3 and to chapter 7. No objections were filed by the State Government to any of the

SC –appointed Committees’ reports before the Supreme Court in its final hearing in January 2014.

6. Some extracts from the SC-appointed Committee report are appended:

“ Hussain Sagar Lake, which is at the center of the city and its central business district (CBD),

should not be allowed to become a part of the CBD or used for allowing picnicking, entertainment

and commerce in the name of creation of parks. The lake should not be allowed to be converted

into any more parks, and in any case no buildings or structures should be allowed in the lake area as

a whole. By keeping the lake and its immediate surroundings relatively free from air pollution by

not commercializing the immediate areas around it, the city would get some relief from the high

asthma and other air pollution-related health effects that most other big Indian cities have been

suffering from.

The lake should not be allowed to be encroached or be polluted. Restoration of the lake should

be done by removing encroachments, as suggested in Section 4.2. In regard to encroachments

prior to 2000, other than road and railway line, cases in courts of law should be pursued, and

wherever the land reverts to the lake, the water body should be enlarged to that extent. Regularization

in favour of the poor, who may have squatted in colonies, may not be wise. Instead they should be

re-located outside the lake area in such a manner that it does not affect their livelihood and social

interactions. The FSI of the colonies that are encroachments into the lake should be frozen at 1:1,

and buildings above two storeys (ground + one floor) should not be allowed under any circumstance.”

7. We also refer to a brief history of litigation and the judgments produced by various courts at

different times under Chapter 1.2 , Brief history of earlier policy and litigation , of the Report.

We also refer to the AP High Court Division Bench Order dated 15-06-2001 in W.P. No. 26378 of

2000, which is relevant, reproduced below:

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8. “Water bodies play an important role in the matter of maintenance of ecology. They

act as a benefactor to the society. Any encroachment on the water bodies may be found to be

detrimental to the society. The considerations for construction being allowed on or near the

water bodies would depend on many factors. Some of the important factors are:1) the purposes for

which such water bodies are used or created; 2) the extent of pollution caused to the water bodies;

3) the extent of ecological imbalance which may be caused, if constructions are allowed in and

around the water bodies” The A.P High Court in its Order dated 15-6-2001, in W.P. No. 26378 of

2000, concluded that “No further permanent structures, including those involving commercial

activities, may be allowed to be raised on or near the Water Spread or Catchment area” and no

filling up of water body of Hussein Sagar shall take place as indicated in judgment of Supreme

Court in SCC 2001(6) 496.

9. Any change in legislation/ Rules, etc., will have to abide by the several judgments of the

A.P. High court, the aforesaid recommendations of the SC- appointed Committee which was not

objected to on behalf of the State Government before the Supreme Court, and above all, by the

requirements of compliance with the Articles 37 and 48 A of the Indian Constitution.

Yours faithfully,

M.VEDAKUMAR

President, Forum For A Better Hyderabad

C.C to:

1. The Chief Secretary, Govt.of Telangana., Hyd.

2. The Principal Secretary, MA &UD, Govt. of Telangana, Hyd.

3. The Commissioner, GHMC, Hyd.

4. The Metropolitan Commissioner, HMDA, Hyd.

5. The Collector, Hyderabad Dist., Hyd

photo : T. Swamy

Naala from Zeera bypassing Hussain Sagar, Dt. 03-06-2015

photo : T. Swamy

Naala from Zeera bypassing Hussain Sagar, Dt. 03-06-2015

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FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490,St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

To 22.11.2014

Hon’ble Chief Minister,

State Government of Telangana,

Telangana Secretariat

Hyderabad.

Respected Sir,

Proposed tower in Sanjeevaiah Park

Referring to the recent press reports about the erection of a Tower in Sanjeevaiah Park, most

respectfully we submit that this will run counter to the purpose for which a park is created. We

refer to the Hon’ble AP High Court Orders dated 28-01-1997, in its landmark judgment on

W.P.Nos.25835/96 and 35/97. The extracts from AP High Court Judgment dated 28-01-1997 are

reproduced below for a ready reference:

“None of the respondents have been able to dispute the averment on behalf of the Petitioners

and interveners that the City’s Parks and other open spaces are hopelessly inadequate as per the

standard in this behalf ……The city is already breathing less than required breath and further

depletions, by acts of the state, of the lung spaces of the city will make the breathing more difficult”

(Pages 51 - 52).

“Since we have found that the respondents have acted in violation of the fundamental rights of

the Petitioners and others similarly situated and we have taken the view that any conversion of the

parks to any other use, would violate the rights under Articles 21 and 14 of the Constitution of

India, we unhesitatingly accept the Petitioners’ plea that respondents have to be restrained from

converting the parks to any other use” (Page 59).

“In the result, the applications are allowed. Respondents are restrained from converting the

above mentioned two parks to any other use ……………”.

“Whatever little scope was available to argue that the government of the state represent the

sovereign and retained thus its eminent domain in deciding in respect of the use of a public place

one way or the other is taken away by the Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act, 1992

and Article 243 W(a) therein read with the list in the Twelfth Schedule” (Page 49).

2. The High Court by judgment dated 28-4-1997 in W.P.No. 3860 of 1996 also observed that

“As held in W.P.Nos25835/96 and 35/97, respondents are restrained from changing the use of the

land and thus the land shall be used as park and such recreational purposes only which are required

to be provided in the park and the surrounding area which was originally covered by Buddha

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Purnima Project and is said to be presently covered by the NTR Project”.

3.We, therefore, humbly request you to drop the proposal for a tower in the Park, which is not

pertinent to its purpose.

Yours faithfully,

(M.VEDAKUMAR)

President, Forum For A Better Hyderabad

Copy forwarded for information and necessary action to

1. The Chief Secretary, Government of Telangana, Hyderabad

2. The Metropolitan Commissioner, HMDA, Hyderabad

3. The Commissioner, GHMC, Hyderabad

4. The Principal Secretary, YAT & C, Govt. of Telangana, Hyderabad

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FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490,St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

&

CIVIL SOCIETY GROUPS

Dt: 26.11.2014

To

The Chief Secretary,

Telangana State Government,

Secretariat

Hyderabad, Telangana

Dear Sir,

A . Skyscrapers in Hyderabad – 40 spots identified.

B. Hussainsagar to be emptied in summer.

We refer to the reports in various papers on the above subjects and would like to table the

following issues for consideration:

A. Skyscrapers in Hyderabad – 40 spots identified.

- Whether the Economics of the project of skyscrapers have been drawn; what will be expected

benefits from the project by way of improving the State’s economy; the economic cost of the

project ; and how it will be funded and in what manner.

- How is it placed among the competing demands on the resources available to the State of

Telangana which in the city of Hyderabad faces lack of many basic infrastructures and civic

amenities which is well known to the government – where deaths occur because some open

drains cannot be covered, schools cannot be provided with toilets –report from the Hindu of

24.11.14, captioned “ With only Rs. 17000/- what can we do ?.”

- Will the project not reduce instead of increase, in the net, the attractiveness of Hyderabad by

devastating Hussainsagar a beautiful, historical, and attractive site ; and by depriving the

government of the scarce available wherewithal for creating better infrastructure, civic amenities,

raising the quality of living of the common people ?

- How will the project for skyscrapers satisfy “ all environmental concerns and stick to Supreme

Court guidelines “ , when the environmental laws, Court orders , and the report of the Supreme

Court-appointed Committee, which was not objected to by any of the concerned government

officials before the Supreme Court in the final hearing ? We have already referred specifically

to these violations in our letter dt 17.11.2014, copy attached for ready reference. We are unable

to understand how such compliance can be claimed, particularly if the Times of India report dt

24.11.14 attributing a statement to the government that “the buildings would be constructed

beyond the full tank level (FTL) of the lake” is correct.

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- A preliminary review of the best practices in several countries re Water Front development

show that they have strict regulations against creating high-rises there and SC-appointed

Committee specifically recommends against Hussainsagar being made part of the Central

Business district ( CBD ) , vide paragraph 6 of our letter dt 17.11.14.

B. Hussainsagar to be emptied.

- What will be destination of the emptied water, which is non-potable ? How will it be connected

to such destination(s) / cost thereof ? Can such arrangement for transferring the water be

completed by next summer ?

- Where will the silt from Hussainsagar be dumped ? Already, there is a problem in regard to

limited and phased dumping by JICA.

- What will happen to the JICA project which is not complete ?

A and B – With regard to both these projects, has any team of experts and government

officials examined these ? Or, is the role of the government officials confined only to executing the

project already decided upon ? What has been the process of the making such a strategic decision ?

C. Indira Sagar park.In regard to the project of creating a Sagar at Indira park, we invite your kind attention to

W.P.No 25835/96 and 35/97 of A.P. Hih Court : “None of the respondents have been able to

dispute the averment on behalf of the Petitioners and interveners that the City’s Parks and other

open spaces are hopelessly inadequate as per the standard in this behalf ……The city is already

breathing less than required breath and further depletions, by acts of the state, of the lung

spaces of the city will make the breathing more difficult” (Pages 51 - 52).

“Since we have found that the respondents have acted in violation of the fundamental

rights of the Petitioners and others similarly situated and we have taken the view that any

conversion of the parks to any other use, would violate the rights under Articles 21 and 14 of

the Constitution of India, we unhesitatingly accept the Petitioners’ plea that respondents

have to be restrained from converting the parks to any other use” (Page 59).

“In the result, the applications are allowed. Respondents are restrained from converting the

above mentioned two parks to any other use and from permitting in future any burial, cremation

or otherwise disposal of the dead at any place other than the place registered —”

“Whatever little scope was available to argue that the government of the state represent the

sovereign and retained thus its eminent domain in deciding in respect of the use of a public place

one way or the other is taken away by the Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act, 1992

and Article 243W(a) therein read with the list in the Twelfth Schedule” (Page 49).

Yours faithfully,

(M.VEDAKUMAR)

President, Forum For A Better Hyderabad

Our letter dt 17.11.14.

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The city is a pathway for better quality of

life for which all Hyderabadis are entitled to

aspire for and participate in achieving it. Yet, we

have many miles to go. Hyderabad has now

emerged as the sixth largest city in the country

with eighty five lakh population with another

20 lakhs living in the periphery, there by

englobing one-fourth of the population of the

new Telangana state. It contributes to the extent

of 15% of the informatics-related national exports

and has an estimated Gross Domestic Product

of 39,000 crores of rupees. It works out a per

capita income of Rs. 77,342. Right from the early

settlements at the time of the Kakatiyas, it now

became a modern city with urban architecture

by the side of historical monuments. In terms of

Human Development Index, the state stands at

the 10th place in the country. It has got a literacy

rate of 83.25% which is likely to remain so for

some time to come, as the rural immigrants keep

adding themselves to the number of inhabitants.

This is no mean achievement, even by

international standards. While the civic

citizenship is reasonably fulfilled, yet, there

remains a vast field for the exercise of social,

economic and cultural citizenship.

I. Citizen Participation for GoodGovernance:

More than ever before, the urban life-styles

have become the motors for a humanist universal

civilisation. Hyderabad has a great stock of

human capital that is not yet well assessed and

well-invested. Since it is a perishable commodity,

we are losers, since it is being wasted. Being a

An Agenda for Further Democratisation of the City

Dr. Rao V.B.J. Chelikani(rao vbj@yahoo.com)

historic capital city, it has got a rich civil society,

composed of highly qualified, intellectual and

experienced citizens, who have held diverse levels

of responsibilities in administrative,

entrepreneurial, professional, and cultural

domains .Cultural and social life has always been

very intense. Added to that, we have a new

generation of young professional performers and

managers with skills and technologies. It is a

cosmopolitan city, hosting people from many

states far and near and who are well-woven into

social and cultural fabric of Hyderabad. It is in

the light of this that we regret that the civil

society is not being given enough space to express

itself individually as well as collectively in civic,

cultural, social and economic matters in the city.

Unfortunately, by grafting a parliamentary

representative regime of the Western model over

a medieval society, we also gave birth, on the

other hand, to a political class that revels in

enacting royal styles of governance with

protocols. Civil society presence and

intervention looks like an encroachment into

their territory. Municipal bureaucracy too, feels

challenged and becomes defensive when civil

society groups demand more simplicity,

transparency and accountability. This is

hampering the flourishing of the civil society and

citizen participation in Hyderabad in order to

sustain a truly democratic polity and a

progressive society.

a). Attempts are being made, since the 73rd

Constitutional Amendment of 1992, to make the

urban local bodies as the 3rd tier of governance

with 18 specific functions for which the XIV

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Finance Commissions has allocated the funds

necessary for paying the functionaries. Art. 243

(U) of the Constitution, since then, insists that

an election to constitute the next municipal

council should be conducted before the expiry

of its duration. In spite of it, following Sec.62-A

of A.P. Municipalities Act of 1956 the successive

state governments have been denying the

Corporation, not once, its right to self-

governance by appointing Special Officers. It is

on the initiative of a civil society organisation

(CSO) that the High Court has obliged the State

government and the State Election Commission

to commit themselves to conduct the elections,

at least by December, 2015. We should hope that

continued vigilance of the CSOs would prevent

the recurrence of such democratic deficiencies.

A further decentralisation as envisaged by

the present government by having more wards

and more circles and even, further, sub-division

of the city into townships is to be welcomed, so

long as there is an efficient over-arching

coordinating mechanism for entire city and the

region, as we cannot promote islands of

excellence any more. Nor can we afford to allow

the ‘ghettoisation’ of the minorities by this

pretext, which would surely exacerbate

communal disharmony and social unrest. It is

also desirable that we maintain the present

practice of not directly electing a mayor so that

we cannot fall victim to the old habit of the cult

of political personalities. The present procedure

would enforce the spirit of team work.

It is, however, a matter of great concern and

regret that the rich and diverse human capital

available in the city is not adequately reflected

in the quality of the municipal personnel and

political representation, the two traditional

agents of action in the city. The quality of the

elected candidates in 2009 municipal elections has

not been very flattering. The study made by a

civil society organisation, based on the

information most willingly supplied by the local

police stations in the city, under the RTI Act,

reveals that out of the 150 elected corporators,

41 have criminal cases against them. The political

party system which infected the local body

elections makes it impossible for any eminent

citizen who has something to contribute to the

society to venture to participate. On the

contrary, the urban citizen is accused of

displaying ‘democratic deficit’ by not going to

vote. Similarly, in the Corporation the top jobs

are given to the state bureaucracy who are well-

trained in handling files and lower jobs are filled

on humanitarian, compassionate or in the name

of positive discrimination, or any other criteria

than competence and performance.

Slum and low-income areas are often offered

many enticements and inducements by the

political parties to capture votes ‘en bloc’. As

such, their votes have been determining the fate

of the candidate. Hence, the civil society

organisations have been striving for clean

elections and quality candidates and to dispel

voter indifference. The city has, for the past ten

years, some civil society organisations which are

carrying out ‘Election Watch’ activities before,

during and after the local elections. They arrange

for voter awareness, voter registration and voter

participation. They ensure that the candidates

observe the election Code of Conduct, as

regulated by the Central Election Commission

of India. The State Election Commission, most

often, appears impressed by the powerful local

political influences in power and cooperates

timidly with the civil society organisations. The

resident welfare associations (RWAs) with the

help of the senior citizens’ associations, usually,

facilitate the election process by hosting the

polling booths in their function halls and,

sometimes, they themselves officiate as Booth

Level officers. The RWA federations have some

broad options or defined strategies, including

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those that prompt the RWAs themselves to

endorse or even set up candidates coming from

among them. This phenomenon exists even in

New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai municipal

corporations.

b).At the level, many of the basic human

needs can be attended to by the concerned

citizens themselves and, one of such

opportunities is available with ward

committees(W/C) and area sabhas (AS).

The G.O. Ms. No.57 of 2010 has introduced

the W/C & AS, wherein the nominations as

ward committee members and as the presiding

AS representatives are to be made only by the

civil society organisations and the approval or

selection is to be done by municipal council. Half

of them have to be women. This is an extremely

significant move, probably inspired by the

incentives offered by the Urban Renewal

Mission. The CSOs have enthusiastically

mobilised many eminent and experienced seniors

who have retired as chief engineers, chartered

accountants, lawyers, doctors, municipal

commissioners, etc. to offer themselves to be

involved in local matters that are of concern to

them personally. In spite of being reminded, the

then commissioner did not think it necessary to

lay out any procedure for the selection in the

Council. The State Election Commission had

refused to intervene, when solicited by the CSOs.

Finally, in the Council, each corporator read out

a list of his choice, ignoring the nominations filed.

It has been evident right from the beginning that

the political representatives have not viewed it

kindly. Consequently, the committee meetings

with the members and AS were never called for

and, occasionally, the records are made and

signatures are collected. Approached by a CSO,

the High Court has given specific directions,

which the commissioner had made vain efforts

to comply with. On the whole, at the end, the

constitutional objective has failed totally, to put

it bluntly.

Recently, however, the Commissioner of

Municipal Administration in the Government

of Telangana has, on the request of a CSO, sent

a circular to all the municipalities in the districts

to implement the same above mentioned G.O.

As far as the GHMC is concerned, again the

CSOs have to see that the past is not repeated in

the next elections. Till then, the citizens have no

channels to participate in municipal matters, as

we have seen at the time of the preparation of

the annual budget. Ideally, in the true spirit of

local democracy, these ward committees and area

sabhas can continue to operate, irrespective of

the political fortunes of the corporators. The

mandate of the WC and AS need not have to be

co-terminus with that of the corporators.

c). The expanding civil society activism finds

its fine expression at a still lower level which has

not, hitherto, been envisaged. For the last three

decades, there has been a mushrooming of

residents’ welfare associations (RWAs) in

Hyderabad, parallel to their earlier growth in

Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, New Delhi, etc.

Their equivalents already exist as Residential

Community Associations in the USA since 1890

and as Zhumin Weiyuahui in China since 1954.

They are horizontal houses or colonies of houses

built in lay-outs: area resident welfare

associations: arrwa. A little later, there has been

a vertiginous growth of vertical buildings of flats

or apartments: aprwa. They are, now, emerging

as the 4th tier of governance. As the municipal

governance is too far, unwieldy and inadequate

to deal with their most immediate problems

related to their basic needs, they act as private

governments. Regularly, elected by the residents,

they are self governing non-political, social

entities. They promote human development at

the nearest level from the cradle to the grave. By

force of circumstances, they build close social

bonds of sharing and caring in micro-urban

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communities, beyond the blood-related family

affinities which are being fragilized by the fast

moving modern life. They are exploring

appropriate social engineering techniques based

on their own socio-psychological experiences in

order to build a new social space called ‘enlarged

family’. They are our urban ‘kibbutzes’. In this

aspect of building social bonds, the Hyderabad

RWAs are a distinct model and an inspiration

for other RWAs across the nation. These new

civic virtues or new ethics generated in human

relations will lay the foundations for a democratic

urban society.

However, there have not been many organic

links between the 3rd and the 4th tiers of our polity

i.e. between the GHMC and the federations of

the RWAs, as both of them are governed by two

different Acts. In the past, some senior

commissioners have issued circulars stipulating

periodical social dialogue: every month with the

Deputy Commissioner, every 3 months with the

Zonal Commissioner and every six months with

the Commissioner. Sometimes, some

programmes, such as electoral registration,

vaccinations, epidemic prevention, floods, ‘Clean

and Green, Swachh Hyderabad are taken up on

campaign mode. The velocity of these dialogues

is subjected to the ebb and tide of enthusiasm on

the part of the incumbent commissioner and the

office-bearers of the RWAs. The RWAs,

naturally, hold such consultations and deal with

many other local personnel and offices of the

state, such as the police station and union

government departments, such as a post office

or the constitutional bodies like the Chief

Election Commissioner of India.

d).The worst evil that our country is

suffering from is our stagnant bureaucracy,

especially at the municipal level. They have an

appallingly low level of skills for an elite city

like Hyderabad. A complete revamping, close to

demolition is needed, if we want to follow the

ruling political philosophy of our prime minister

i.e. minimum government and maximum

governance. But, this cannot be done without

legislative and ministerial cooperation. The State

Information Commission considers the RTI

compliance of GHMC as very poor. It’s website

is very slowly updated. However, there is certain

amelioration in electronic communications, with

the increasing presence of IT savvy officers.

Ultimately, we need a chief executive officer

who can manage a team of professionals and

25,734 staff who could be hired and fired, if their

monthly performance is not satisfactory. As we

have already mentioned that the city is rich with

much of human capital with professional skills

willing to accomplish things for personal

satisfaction and as well as a civic virtue. They

are, at present, being, jealously, kept at a distance.

e). Present cooperation with the private

sector and with the RWAs is done with a

sabotaging strategy to prove that they cannot do

better. The contracts of execution or

consultations or the tenders are self-defeating in

their language of drafting, implying delays,

arbitrariness, cost over-runs and de-motivating.

This mindset has to go. It is to be seen in the

spirit of peoples’ or stakeholders participation.

Any experiment would certainly prove that the

manager of small enterprise would be a very

efficient mayor or commissioner.

Since the active and productive social and

economic forces in the city do not find place to

contribute to the fashioning of our collective

destiny, there is, probably a need for forming a

second, alternative municipal council as an

assembling point for all civil society organisations

to express their diverse concerns and suggestions

for the attention of all the decision-makers and

executives. Above all, such an exercise is meant

to make the citizens aware of what is happening.

This will be like a peoples parliament spear-

headed by not only by CSOs but also the

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professional bodies in the city.

f). i. The accounting system is archaic and

there are world standard chartered accountants

firms in the city which could have helped just

for asking. ii. And auditing has not been done

for ages. iii. Social auditing is right of the civil

society. It is good that the current budget made

a small beginning about social auditing

opportunities for the RWAs. Such an

opportunity should be extended to other civil

society organisations also, so that their

contribution would not appear to be always

critical.

II. Social Transformation of the UrbanMilieu:

a). Though in general we can say that the

caste system is the enemy of social democracy,

we find that the political forces in our country

have not only singularly failed in eliminating it

but, on the contrary, they have artificially re-

generated this feeling for their partisan purposes.

The political representation in GHMC too, is

not completely immune from clan, caste, creed

and regional affiliations and loyalties. The real

issue in Hyderabad in which old settlements,

colonies, slums and even some early apartment-

buildings which harboured some exclusive

groups based on religion, caste, region or

language, still persist as physical and mental

ghettos, isolating the individuals, especially,

women from the fast moving mainstream urban

life. What the enlightened civil society activists

are concerned and involved in, is how to build

social inter-action, dialogue, mutual help and

harmony in dealing with pockets of slums and

islands of minority communities. But, in the long

term, these ‘exclusive feelings’ have no chance

to survive in the evolving urban micro

communities.

b).Cities and slums is a generic problem of

spatial management or lack of it by the urban

planners. The existing 1,776 notified and non-

notified slums have come into existence,

essentially, out of housing problem, which, in

its turn, depends upon the intensity of rural

migration. In comparison with what is happening

in the Latin American and African countries, our

cities are far better off.

The housing policy of the city can modify

the general tendency of the rich staying in the

centres and the poorer living in the outskirts of

the city. The City as well as the state and Central

governments have been devoting enormous

amounts of money and managed to construct,

so far, only around 35,000, out of projected

70,000 houses. Among them, some remained

unoccupied. There is a current requirement for,

at least, five lakh flats for which the occupants

can pay a modest rent. Had the private sector or

public-private partnerships been relied upon, by

now, they would have constructed enough of 2-

bedroom tenements worth within five lakhs of

rupees. Now, obviously, more investments are

needed. Further, corruption and inefficiency in

the Planning and Engineering sections have

created a problem of more than 60,000 irregular

buildings, some of which might be unsafe but

are not demolished. In spite of periodic schemes,

called one-time settlements, regularisations are

never brought to logical conclusion and are,

often, mired in legal proceedings.

We have in the city, reputed professional

associations of engineers, architects, town

planners, urbanists and chambers of qualified

builders as well as specialised housing finance

institutions which can meet the challenges of

urban development. They should be trusted and

given responsibilities so that we can, tomorrow,

make them accountable also. Then, they can fulfil

our cherished dream of housing for all in the city.

There exist many social and economic

inequalities in some areas which can best be

tackled by associating the neighbouring

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residential communities, where there is clear

inter-dependence. Local NGOs and local

enterprises can also be handed over to many

Urban Community Development schemes and

services that are, at present, undertaken

inefficiently and delivered unsatisfactorily by the

municipal personnel. They can collaborate

directly with the active social forces like the slum

level federations and SHGs. They can prevent

the school drop outs and provide employable

skills.

III. Good Strategic Planning CanImprove Inclusive Growth for All:

Cities have been the main source of wealth

creation and traditionally, they offered better

opportunities for rich people to be richer. Now,

in democratic societies, merit and hard work

alone are sufficient to anybody to earn well and

to enhance one’s standard of living as well as

quality of life. Hyderabad is no exception to this

logic. With the emergence of the new state of

Telangana, there is, undoubtedly, a new political

dynamism that should lay more stress and trust

in the private initiatives to continue the growth

and economic empowerment, in terms of more

jobs, social security and facilitators to push up

the indicators of Human Development

Indicators.

a). Updating and upgrading Hyderabad as a

smart city should take precedence over other

things, since it would greatly facilitate better

quality of life. This would be easy, as Hyderabad

is already very much pre-disposed with the

vibrant presence of IT companies. ICT-enabled

governance services delivered through e-seva

centres, Mee-Kosam, online grievance redressal

should be expanded to reach all citizens and their

performance should be improved. The

commitments of the citizens charter in GHMC

should be taken in the spirit of the Consumer

Protection Act and judged by the District

Consumer Grievance Redressal forum. Setting

up of already envisaged Tribunal and

Ombudsman should not be delayed anymore.

b).A city has to constantly upgrade its

infrastructural facilities for its citizens and for

the visitors. The quality of the facilities reflects

the sophistication of its citizens. The city has to

continue to invest. While public sector, once an

absolute necessity, is now turned into source of

avoidable wastage of public money. However,

the Public-Private Partnership is a concession

that has started pulling us out of many

infrastructural deficiencies. Hyderabad Metro

Rail project is a good example to follow. The

city of Hyderabad will find its splendour and

prosperity due to the vigour of its economically

active citizens. Some might have immigrated as

economic investors which is an enterprising act

as economic growth is the only way for social

development. Thus undoubtedly, it is due to

private sector dynamism in the field of

information technology related services as

reflected in the emergence of Cyberabad and the

Finance district that are able to provide high-end

salaries for nearly fifteen lakh young citizens. It

has to facilitate the growth of many more schools,

colleges and institutions of higher learning, multi-

speciality hospitals, conference and exhibition

halls, complexes for games and sports, retail and

entertainments avenues, etc. where Hyderabad

is reasonably well equipped.

c). City is a paradise for economic

empowerment of women as well as the weaker

sections of the society born in rural areas, as the

employment opportunities are unlimited in

urban areas. Economic viability and productivity

logic will easily dissipate the gender

discrimination as much as caste-discrimination.

An ingenious person in the city does not join in

a job, he creates a job for himself. Our

infrastructural needs are so gigantic that the

private sector can absorb all employable people.

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Strange it may appear but, we do not have

unemployment problem in the urban areas. On

the other hand, we have a problem of lack of

enough institutions to educate and to impart

technical knowledge and skills to lead a

meaningful day to day life, without wasting many

precious natural resources and without causing

all kinds of pollutions. GHMC may give grants

to encourage such institutions.

There is a need for producer-consumer

symbiosis as each urban citizen is an intensive

producer and an avid consumer. Shortly, with

Jan Dhan Yojana, the financial inclusion will be

complete in the city. At present, in the city, the

citizens who are well-covered in terms of health

care, pensions and other social security measures

are an infinite minority. And it is precisely in an

urban context that we have enough of avenues

to cover a maximum enormous financial

transactions make him an investor with his

savings, deposits, shares, capital gains, user-fees

payments, consumption of goods and services,

owner of municipal bonds and social security

contributions.

d). Many important cities in the world have

their own policy, strategy and practices with

regard to appropriate technologies, innovations

and intelligent tools for energy conservation,

renewable energy, rain water harvesting, water

re-cycling effluent recycling and scientific waste

disposal methods. Customised research and

development experts and institutions should be

encouraged to inter-act with the citizens so that

their habits and styles of living could be made

environment friendly. Solid and liquid wastes

management in the city is still a very big

unresolved issue. The CSOs should persuade

various professional associations in the city to

come out with their own charters to deal with

the Climate Change issues. The United

Federation of Resident Welfare Associations

(UFERWAS) had adopted an RWA Charter for

reducing the carbon footprint in their areas.

Good practices are to be exhibited: Transit

oriented habitats; Walk to Work; First and last

mile connectivity; Reduced use of personal

vehicle; public transport, Electrical Vehicles,

bicycle paths, etc.

e). In order to make people feel safe and

secure, especially for women, community-

patrolling in the places where there are RWAs

and in other places the Police Maitri committees

should be activated.

f). Regional planning should include people

in the out skirts or in the periphery of the

Megacity and surrounding rural areas covering

7,200 sq.km, as it is envisaged in Hyderabad

Metropolitan Development Authority. The

Master Plan for metropolitan city which was

widely discussed and adopted needs a revision in

the new geo-political context in order to establish

rural urban linkages and inclusive regional

growth. Micro-planning should start with

discussions among the ward committees

members and residents’ area sabhas. The revised

master plan should reflect the spirit of PURA:

Provision of Urban Amenities to Rural Areas.

While promoting green spaces through lakes and

parks or social forestry inside the city, further

aforestation should be carried out in hills and

mountains, which is very much neglected so far.

For long time to come, our efforts to green the

urban areas might continue to face many

obstacles due to constant revamping of

infrastructural facilities. Like in cities of Hong

Kong, Taipei, Macao, Singapore, we have to

accept mixed use of space for residential and

commercial use, to some extent to solve

commutation and consequent pollution

problems.

g). It is not important to know how rich a

city is or how big is its budget. What is important

is how it serves the citizen without

impoverishing him. It should work like a social

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enterprise by developing its own resources. Its

imposition of taxes, as in the case of the property

tax, is not rational and the rate of recovery is

not very high. Its assets like open spaces must

become productive. It can undertake projects and

contracts from the state and union governments

by sub-contracting them to the local

communities. User charges from its public

utilities must not only reimburse its investments

but also must leave surplus for further expansion.

IV. Culture For All:A city reflects the people who live in it; if it

is dirty, ugly, noisy, violent and has a polluted

air, the municipal administration cannot squarely

be blamed. The main purpose of urban living is

to improve the quality of the human being. The

city is to be, constantly, sculpted and re-sculpted

by the urbanites who always strive to perfect the

art of managing the space. Urban space is very

fluid, changing and transformable into pleasant

forms and expressions. Space is not a pre-designed

and nature-given; human creativity modifies,

making it as artistic as it can be. Not only those

who live but those who pass by, are also

participants in it. It is good that for the first time,

the 2015-2016 budget carries some provision for

the promotion of culture.

a). Without architectural and aesthetic

beauty and urban arts, life will be very

monotonous and strenuous. Urban areas reflect

social solidarity in enjoying aesthetics through

public art. Parks can reflect bio-diversity by

harbouring flora and fauna and the neighbouring

communities like the RWAs have to maintain

them. It can be done more extensively. Initial

funding to start with or to help taste things, the

municipality can offer in some parks in some

aspects for some time. When the artistic urge is

resurrected in the residents, then, patronage of

public art will not depend upon the municipal

administration which is normally aseptic about

such things. A sculpture by the local artists can

give a cultural ID to an area like a postal address,

in a city where smart postal address is yet to be

introduced. The metro rail pillars can

demonstrate the mural arts by the local children

and schools of art. Multi-functional community

halls should be able to present all performing arts

like dance and drama. Spontaneous social inter-

action is an urban urge, whereas in the past fixed

days and occasions imposed obligatory

gatherings, whether it suits one or not. Enjoying

art together, helps one to transcend differences

or conflict in values.

b).There is a need for a sea change in the

eating habits. Once eating was a more private

act than excreting. On the other hand, in a

tropical climate, we should consider it a blessing

and enjoyable to eat together without it being a

part of any ceremony. Street vending and open

buying of local handicrafts or vegetables,

particularly, eatables, is a universal phenomenon

that exists even in the coldest urban pockets. In

Indian towns and cities it should be promoted

in the name of social and economic equity, for

socialising, informality, spontaneity and

expediency. It is good that we are giving licenses,

instead of throwing them out. We should,

further, guide them to suit the space, time, season,

sanitation and hygiene.

Further, encouraging, promoting and

supporting associative life for all sections of the

population like children, youth, women, senior

citizens and for all secular and economic activities

should be accelerated and expanded. GHMC has

got a nationally unique Aasara which is a

registered paritary organisation of municipal

officials and senior citizens associations in all

circles of the city in order to serve not only the

senior citizens but also the society at large.

Though we are a society of young people and

they are high earners, their aspirations and their

achievements are not the talk of the town. For

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the media, city news means only political quarrels

and scandals about the celebrities and it spends

disproportionate amount of time and energies

on them. Now, the society’s attention is being

drawn, more and more, by the social media,

where youth and women are the makers of news.

This is another sign of vigorous social

participation of the citizens.

But, in all functions of arts, culture, sports

and games and even in religious ceremonies and

intellectual debates, it is ridiculous for the

politicians and officials, local or national to insist

on being invited, gracing them by sitting in big

red-velvet cushioned canapés and feeling obliged

to give speeches.

When many national and international

events take place in Hyderabad on subjects like

bio-diversity, environment, climate change,

megacities or even in scientific conferences, the

local official hierarchy and political personalities

totally dominate the event, leaving no space for

the local citizens and the institutions to enrich

themselves, however specialised they might be

in the subject. The organisers should realise that

they are there only to promote the human capital

and to enrich the institutions available in the city,

rather than to behave like the aristocracy of the

modern society. This is the kind of democracy

that we are trying to adopt in our city as well as

across the country and all educated people should

work together in harmony with such values.

Hussain Sagar inside & outside dt. 03-06-2015 photo: T. Swamy

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Here are a few practical suggestions that may

help the government to strengthen people’s

participation in grasroot self-governance.

Participatory budgetingMohalla committees are designed to deal

with local issues. However, they can also be used

as platforms for Hyderabad’s polity to participate

in decisions that affect all of the city’s polity

through a process called participatory budgeting.

Participatory budgeting first began in 1990

in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre. In the first

quarter of every year, communities hold open

house meetings every week to discuss and vote

on the city’s budget and spending priorities for

their neighbourhood. Later, city-wide public

plenaries pass a budget that is binding on the city

council. The results speak for themselves. Within

seven years of starting participatory budgeting,

household access to piped water and sewers

doubled to touch 95%. Roads, particularly in

slums, increased five-fold. Schools quadrupled,

health and education budgets trebled. Tax

evasion fell as people saw their money at work.

People used computer kiosks to feed

communicate suggestions to the city council’s

website.

Participatory budgeting is now being done

in 1,500 towns around the world—Europe, South

America, Canada, India—Pune, Bengaluru,

Mysore and Hiware Bazar in Maharashtra.

Twenty five years ago, Hiware Bazar was like

any other drought-prone village in Marathwada.

Today its income has increased twenty-fold and

poverty has all but disappeared.

Tools To Strengthen People’s Participation

In Grassroot Self-governance

Sagar Dhara

India has a Right to information (RTI) Act.

It has been used effectively by a small fraction of

the educated who know how to locate the

information they want. But the vast majority of

Indians cannot use the RTI Act as they do not

know how to access the information they want.

The RTI Act empowers people with the right to

get information, but does not tell them how to

access it. What is required is an aam admi-friendly

information search engine. To design such a search

engine requires us to understand a wee bit of

information theory.

There is a distance between an information

seeker and the information that she seeks. This

distance can be measured in terms of effort (that

includes time) and cost. For example, a traveller

going from Lonavala to Pune wishing to know

whether her Mumbai-Pune train is on time will

have to access this information either from the

net or by calling railway enquiries.

distance between information and

information seeker

In this case, only one piece of information

is sought and is available in one place and the

effort and cost to get it is small. But if the traveller

wanted to know the status of all Mumbai-Pune

trains on a particular afternoon between 2-5 pm,

the effort and cost increases. Though the

quantum of information has increased, the effort

and cost of accessing it does not increase

significantly as it is all still available in a single

place.

If the query is such that information sought

is available at several places, the search becomes

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more complicated and will take more time and

effort. For example, if a researcher wanted to

know how much land was under paddy in

Badaun district last year, he would have to collect

this information from land records maintained

in each village in Badaun district and then

compile them on a spreadsheet. The information

is spread horizontally across an entire district.

If however, the researcher wishes to know

how much land was earmarked for paddy by the

district authorities and how much was actually

under paddy, the researcher would have to go to

the district headquarter to get the former

information and then to all villages to get the

latter information. This location of this

information is spread vertically and horizontally,

and therefore requires more effort and cost to

access.

A lot of the information that any aam admi,

may want is spread vertically and horizontally,

e.g., what are all the Telangana Government

schemes that a mohalla can avail of for water,

sanitation, baalwadis, pension schemes for the

poor, mid-day meal schemes for government

schools, etc.? Is it possible to design a search

engine that an aam admi can use to access this

information quickly and with minimum effort

and cost, and most importantly without

computer skills?

Yes. We require an aam admi-friendly

information search engine that works on

different platforms—manual platforms,

computer networks and phones. The way that

the RTI works presently, the information seeker

has to travel the entire distance to where the

information is located. She has to first locate the

information, and then ask for it.

If the information were to travel half the

distance to the seeker by advertising itself, “here

I am, if you want me,” the distance between the

information and its seeker reduces. This has

already been done on the internet by search

engines. But only the net-savvy can use them,

not the aam admi. Moreover, a lot of information

from government, particularly about schemes

and budgets, is not always available on the net.

To overcome these obstacles, a low-cost

platform can be used—notice boards outside

every government office detailing the

information available in that office under six

major heads as outlined under. These

information heads are common to all

government ministries and departments,

regardless of whether they pertain to law and

order, health, environment, industry, or any

other subject.

Policy deals with government’s intention in

a particular subject.

Organization deals with structure,

responsibilities/duties and powers of

functionaries at different levels.

Plans deal with programmes, schemes, and

budgets.

Work implementation deals with status of

completed and ongoing programmes,

schemes, financial statements.

Records deal with decisions, studies,

surveys, maps.

Performance deals with evaluation reports,

statistics.

Each of these major heads can be broken

into further sub-heads appropriate to each

ministry or department. For example, the

Environment Department may have information

on air and water quality filed separately. Again

under air quality, information may be separated

by type of area, e.g., industrial, residential,

commercial, and mixed areas.

Government offices form a hierarchy, at the

top, India-level ministries, below that state-level

offices, then district, tehsil and village-level

offices. An information hierarchy follows the

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organizational hierarchy. The ministry will have

information about India as a whole. The

resolution of information that it may have on

every state may not be as high as what is available

at the state-level. To increase the speed of a search

it is important to understand that information

under a particular topic is stacked in such a

hierarchy.

Besides an information-head notice board,

each government office will on demand, provide

a hand-out containing the same information as

on the board to any aam admi who may ask for

it. A comprehensive information availability

chart for all Government ministries and

departments at all levels can also be made

available on other platforms such as the internet.

To help a manual information searcher,

information search offices, much like the yester-

year STD booths, can be established and operated

by private persons in different parts of the city.

Such offices can access the internet to locate the

information required by an aam admi.

Information search offices can provide jobs for

the under-privileged—women, dalits, differently

abled, transgenders, etc., who often have

difficulty finding regular employment. Searches

done by such offices may be charged at approved

rates.

India already has the experience of using

such devices. Before RTI became law in India,

public boards carrying information on daily

receipt and disbursement of food grains were

ordered to be put up outside ration shops in

Madhya Pradesh. Immediately after, food grain

shortages in ration shops disappeared.

Fifteen years ago, industrial plants in

Information hiearchy

Maximum possible vulnerable zone of a catastrophic

accident at the LPG bottling plant at Vijayawada

Environmental quality data at Hindustan Petroleum

Corporation Ltd’s Visakhapatnam plant

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Andhra Pradesh were ordered to put up public

notice boards outside their main gate with

information regarding the compliance conditions

that regulatory authorities had asked them to

follow, the latest environmental quality data

around their plant and the maximum vulnerable

zone in the event of catastrophic accidents. Such

boards were put up by industry for some time,

but lapsed as industry lobbied against them and

there was insufficient push from people to

continue with this practice.

(The author belongs to the most rapacious

predator species that ever stalked the earth—

humans, and to a net destructive discipline—

engineering, that has to take more than a fair

share of the responsibility for bringing earth and

human society to tipping points. You can write

to him at: sagdhara@yahoo.com)

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There is a need to give impetus to rooftop

solar energy panels for power generation, and

some that are not so positive, e.g., setting up

pithead power plants to supply power to

Hyderabad.

The world’s cities are energy parasites. They

consume 75% of global commercial energy, but

produce very little of it. The clean energy that is

generated by the power plants is shipped to the

cities but the wastes—air pollutants, ash—that are

generated are left behind in the hinterland. These

wastes cause enormous injury to the environment

and to the health of humans living around the

plant. No compensation is paid for this injury.

Of India’s 2.55 lakh MW power generating

capacity at the end of 2014, 60% is generated by

coal, 17% by hydro, 11% by renewables, 9% by

gas, 2% by nuclear energy, and 0.5% by liquid

fuels.

A plant of the capacity of 6200 MW requires

1 lakh tonnes of coal per day (40 fully laden coal

trains). In a day the plant will generate 35,000

tonnes of ash, 2.6 lakh tonnes of carbon dioxide

(CO2), 7,000 tonnes of sulphur dioxide and

nitrogen dioxide, respectively.

Thermal power plants are air polluting

industries. Air pollution impacts happen in local

regions (<50 km), regional (50-3,000 km) and

global (>3,000 km). Local and regional impacts

are caused by particulate matter (mostly ash,

which also contains highly toxic and some

carcinogenic heavy metals) and oxides of sulphur

and nitrogen, the latter two gases being acidic.

Global impacts are caused by the CO2 emitted

by power plants.

Dedicated Pithead Thermal Power Plant For

Telangana Is A Bad Idea

Sagar Dhara

Environmental impacts of thermalpower plants

Human health: Air pollution causes health

effects—asthma, chronic bronchitis, burning and

tearing of eyes, skin diseases, and in some cases

cancer. The prevalence of asthma in school

children exposed to air pollution ranged 7-20%

whereas it was only 1-4% amongst those with

no exposure. The cost of air pollution-related

health effects around power plants is under-

studied, but will run into crores of rupees per

annum.

Crop and milk yield losses: Studies have

indicated that crop yields losses can range 10-50%

around power plants. The loss in fruit bearing

trees is even higher. Studies in a 25 km radius

around power plants have indicated that the net

primary production is 15% of energy generated

by the power plants. Ninety of the power

generated by these plants is consumed by cities.

This amounts to an indirect transfer of energy

from rural to urban areas. Milk yield is also

affected by air pollution. A recent study of the

impact of the Ibrahimpatnam power plant

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indicates that crop and milk yield losses in a 10

km radius around the plant was Rs 300 crores

per annum. Mercury emissions from power

plants in the Singrauli area has been found in

cattle milk at concentrations that are

unacceptable.

colony that was located next to the

Ibrahimpatnam power plant. The colony that

housed 2,500 railway employees had to be

abandoned as it was declared unsafe to stay there.

priceless cultural heritage is often at risk if it is

close to power plants. This 600 year old temple

architecture in Krishnapatnam portraying

women warriors is at risk from acidic gases from

power plants, as is the Gol Gumbaz at Bijapur.

Forests: Air pollutants can travel long

distances, sometimes as much as 1,000 km/day.

Acidic gases from Krishnapatnam on the east

coast can travel 500 km to the Western Ghat

forests and cause forest dieback there. This in

turn can affect seasonal water flow in the east

flowing Western Ghats rivers, and hence the

water security of the people living in the Deccan

Structures: Structures close to power plants

often collapse due to acidic gases from the plant.

This happened to the South Central Railway

Collapsed housing in SC Railway colony

Women warriors in Krishnapatnam temple

Air pollution travel shown by line

Unprotected areas by 2030 India’s forest areas

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Plateau. These acidic gases will also make vast

areas of India’s best forests ecologically

unprotected by 2030.

Water bodies: Acidic gases lower the pH

of water bodies, e.g., lakes in the proximity of

power plants. Lower pH water is more inimical

to aquatic ecology.

In once-through cooling plants, very large

quantities of cooling water are discharged into a

river, canal or sea at 10oC above ambient

temperatures. Elevated temperatures have the

same effect on water bodies as lowering their pH.

Ash ponds: The very large amount of fine

ash that is stored in ash ponds, if not properly

submerged in water, can become a source of air

pollution. If the soils of ash ponds are acidic, there

is risk of toxic and carcinogenic heavy metals

leaching into ground water, making it unusable

by surrounding villages. The health of cattle and

goats that graze on in the ash ponds may be

affected. Ash ponds bunds often break and spill

the ash into streams as happened in Kothagudem

and Raigarh. In Raichur, the ash pond wall gave

way and spilt ash into the Krishna River.

consuming this salt may be at risk. Aqua farms

are highly sensitive to any environmental

variation and may be affected by increase in air

pollution.

Ash ponds of the Raichur thermal power plant

Other impacts: If there are salt pans or aqua

farms close to power plants, they will be affected.

Heavy metals from the power plant emissions

will be deposited on the salt pans. Those

Salt pans close to the Simhadri plant

Aqua farms close to Krishnapatnam

SolutionsThe following measures may be adopted for

the proposed new power generating capacity for

Delhi:

Abandon new thermal capacity and opt

for solar energy: Since thermal power has

serious impacts, a new dedicated plant for Delhi

should be abandoned. Rooftop solar panels

should be given priority to solve Delhi’s power

woes.

Alternatively, shift location of new

thermal power plant to Hyderabad: If it is felt

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that thermal power alone can alleviate

Hyderabad’s power problems, the plant should

be located in the state of Telangana. This follows

the logic of “Polluter pays.” The city that wants

the good things from a particular project, in this

case clean power, should also take the waste that

is generated by the project, i.e., pollutants from

a thermal power plant. It is after all following

this principle that India sent back the

decommissioned French aircraft that had asbestos

insulation in it after it was towed half way from

France to India to be broken at Alang.

The following measures should be taken for

the existing thermal plants supplying power to

Telangana:

Do people’s EIA and environmental

monitoring: To understand the impact of

existing power plants supplying power to

Hyderabad, an environmental impact assessment

should be done by the impacted people, i.e., the

bystander people around the plant and the plant

workers. Only then will the true impact of

existing plants become known. Likewise

environmental and safety monitoring of existing

plants should be done by impacted people.

Install flue gas desulphurizers: Flue gas

desulphurizers should be installed at all power

plants supplying power to Hyderabad. This will

reduce the sulphur component of the acidic gases

emitted by the power plants. It entails a cost of

about 10-12% of the capital cost of a power plant

at current rates.

Sequester carbon dioxide emissions or pay

its international price: A plant of 6,200 MW

capacity will emit 85 million tonnes of CO2 per

annum and a plantation the area of 1.15 lakh km2

will be required to sequester the CO2. To create

such a plantation would cost Rs 4.5 lakh crores,

i.e., about 6.5% of the Union Government’s

budget for 20014-15. Since one lakh km2 of land

is not available to convert into plantation, the

Telangana government should pay the price of

carbon at international prices (Rs 750/T). A sum

of Rs 6,375 crores should be paid annually to all

land occupiers in a 500 radius around the plant.

Provide bank guarantees: Existing thermal

power plants supplying power to Telangana

should provide the panchayats and municipalities

in a 50 km radius around each plant a bank

guarantee equal to the capital cost of their plants

at current costing rates. The bank guarantee may

be cashed in part or whole if any injury to the

environment or human health occurs due to the

power plants.

(You can write to the author at:

sagdhara@yahoo.com)

photo : T. Swamy

Hussain Sagar surplus wier inside, Dt. 03-06-2015

photo : T. Swamy

Hussain Sagar surplus wier Mariot side, Dt. 03-06-2015

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Contrasting outcomes of recent globalwarming meetings

Two recent meetings on global warming,

one scientific and the other political, are of great

public interest as they have a bearing on human

society’s future course to become a sustainable

global community. The meetings contrasted each

other in the clarity of their outcomes.

The first meeting was held by the

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change

(IPCC), a body of over 2,000 scientists. IPCC

released its fifth assessment’s synthesis report in

Copenhagen end-October 2014. The report states

unequivocally that “Human influence on the

climate system is clear.” Further, it warns that the

emission of another 1,000 Giga tonnes1 (Gt) of

carbon dioxide (CO2), referred to as the carbon

space, is likely to raise average global surface

temperatures by 2oC above pre-industrial times.

This is considered dangerous to the environment

and human society.

Since the industrial revolution began in the

mid-18th Century, humans have used 35% of the

known 1,700 Gt of conventional fossil fuel

reserves, and cut a third of the then existing 60

million km2 of forests to emit 2,000 GtCO2. The

consequent 0.85oC average global temperature

rise over pre-industrial times has triggered

significant changes in the physical, biological and

human environments. For example, rainfall

variation has increased, extreme weather events

are more frequent, pole-ward migration of species

is noticeable and their extinction rate is higher,

human health, food and water security are at

greater risk, crop yield variations are higher, a

Keep the Climate, Change the Economy

Sagar Dhara

19 cm mean sea rise and a 40% reduction in

Arctic’s summer ice extent have occurred over

the last century, glaciers have shrunk by 275 Gt

per annum in the last two decades, and social

conflicts have increased.

In the second meeting held in early-

December in Lima by the twentieth

Intergovernmental Conference of the Parties

(COP20), countries jostled to gain maximum

advantage for them while negotiating global

warming mitigation and adaptation measures.

The Lima meeting is a run-up to the end-2015

Paris COP21, where a successor agreement to

the expired Kyoto Protocol (KP) is to be

finalized. The COP20 outcome is weak and dims

hope for an effective, binding and just agreement

to be signed in Paris. A face-saving Lima Call for

Climate Action was cobbled together at the

eleventh hour of COP20. It requests countries

to communicate by mid-2015 their intended

contribution to tackle global warming, including

emission targets, which can be discussed in the

Paris COP21.

International cooperation on global

warming began in 1997 when the KP was drafted

at the COP3 with the object of stabilizing

greenhouse gases (GHGs), a basket of 6 gases, at

levels that prevent dangerous human interference

with the climate system. The protocol granted

preferential emission rights to 42 developed

countries (termed Annex 1 or A1), obliging them

to together reduce their GHG emissions in 2012

by 5.2% over their 1990 emissions. Since CO2

constitutes 76% of GHGs, it is often used to

represent all of them.

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International transport emissions were

excluded from the protocol, and developing

countries (non-Annex 1 or NA1) were exempt

from making emission cuts. The US, the largest

emitter till 2005 until China overtook it, did not

ratify the KP and is not bound by it. By 2011,

Canada’s emissions increased drastically and it

pulled out of the KP.

Kyoto Protocol and recent emission

reduction pledges—too little too late

In the 1990-2012 KP period, A1 countries

reduced their emissions by 16%, i.e., 32 GtCO2.

At first glance, it appears that the A1 countries

met their emission reduction target comfortably.

But there is more to this than meets the eye. A1

countries met their KP target because East

Europe’s emission reduction compensated for the

under-performance of other A1 countries.

Emissions of non-European emitters—Canada,

US, Japan and Australia—rose by 6%, instead of

decreasing by 6% as per the KP. West Europe

reduced emissions by 7%, a little under their 8%

target. East Europe and Russia had a reduction

target of 5-6%, but reduced emissions by 55% as

their economies shrank drastically after the 1990

Soviet bloc collapse.

More importantly, A1 countries’ emission

reduction is fictitious. Under the KP, emissions

from the production of goods and services are

credited to the country that produces them,

regardless of where they are consumed. In the

last two decades, A1 countries have become large

net importers (imports minus exports) of goods

and services from NA1 countries, particularly

China and India. This is to the advantage of A1

countries. Cheap imports from NA1 countries

helped A1 countries maintain high consumption

levels at low costs. Emissions from producing

the imports were credited to the producer NA1

countries and not the consumer A1 countries.

A1 countries net trade emissions (emissions from

producing imports minus that of exports) was

45 GtCO2, 40% over their stated 32 GtCO

2

emission reduction by A1 countries during the

KP period.

Substituting coal with gas in Europe and

reducing the carbon intensity of A1 country

economies helped reduce A1 country emissions,

but not significantly.

The KP failed on another count. Its bar was

too low. A1 country reduction of 32 GtCO2

represents merely 1.5% of their emissions

between 1750 and 2012, and is too little to

slowdown global warming.

The KP’s singular achievement, if any, is

increasing awareness about global warming. The

KP’s emission cost over the last 20 years is 3

million tonnes of travel emissions of the

negotiators and lobbyists; the same as that of a

small country such as the Kingdom of Tonga. It

will take the forests area of the Nilgiri Biosphere

(~5,000 km2) a full year to sequester this

emission.

The four largest emitters, who release 60%

of global GHG emissions, have recently

announced emission reductions. But they are too

little too late. European Union pledged a 40%

emission reduction over 1990 by 2030, US by

26-28% over 2005 by 2025. India is to reduce

emission intensity of 20-25% over 2005 by 2020,

and China is to peak emissions by 2030.

If emissions trend in a business-as-usual

manner, the remaining carbon space of 1,000

GtCO2 will fill by 2035. The math on the

emission reduction pledges made by the four

large emitters and several small countries

indicates that the 1,000 GtCO2 carbon space will

fill by 2040 instead of 2035. Former Environment

Minister Mr. Jairam Ramesh’s optimism

expressed recently about the US and China

pledges being helpful is misplaced.

The United Nations Environment

Programme’s Gap Synthesis Report, 2012,

assesses that to avoid a temperature rise exceeding

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2oC, global emissions must peak by 2020 at about

40 GtCO2 and reduce by 2-3% per annum

thereafter. Emissions in 2014 were 37 GtCO2. If

the current emissions growth rate of 3% per

annum persists, emissions in 2020 are likely to

be 44 GtCO2, 10% more than the desirable level.

IPCC consequently warns that without greater

mitigation, temperatures may increase by 4-5oC

by this century-end, and that “The more we

disrupt our climate, the more we risk severe,

pervasive and irreversible impacts.”

Developing countries in a Catch-22situation

The discussion on the KP’s successor is

about emission shares of various countries in the

remaining carbon space, usually seen as being

synonymous to development space. To retain

their development advantage, A1 countries claim

squatters’ rights in this space, while NA1

countries demand equity to gain more

development room.

Since 1750, 75% of the cumulative emissions,

termed historic emissions, were released by A1

countries. Their per capita (on current

populations) historic emission is 1,300 tonnes,

four times that of NA1 countries. Even if the

entire remaining 1,000 GtCO2 of carbon space

is allocated to NA1 countries they will not

achieve A1 countries’ development levels.

To gain development space if NA1 countries

refuse emission targets in the COP21 meeting,

the consequences of global warming will hurt

them the most, particularly their poor, as

geographically and economically they are more

vulnerable to climate change impacts than A1

countries. If they accept emission targets,

development inequality between them and A1

countries will persist for a long time. Out of the

box solutions must now be considered seriously.

Towards a sustainable and equitablesociety

Global warming is a consequence of fossil

fuel overdraws to satisfy the ever rising

consumption levels of rich nations and classes.

Carbon space allocation cannot solve the global

warming problem as it is rooted in

anthropocentrism and ownership rights over

nature.

Anthropocentrism prioritizes human use of

nature. Humans have overdrawn natural

resources for their benefit but to the detriment

of other users. Consequently several life-support

systems, e.g., land, water, forests, the carbon and

nitrogen cycles, are now frayed. If this process

persists, nature will no longer be able to support

a healthy human society.

Ownership of nature allows the owner to

harvest natural resources from his property to

create and accumulate wealth. As natural

resources from land were the easiest to harvest,

it was colonized and privatized first, followed

by water. The atmosphere holds few exploitable

resources, so remained a global common till

recently. The KP began privatizing the

atmosphere by granting preferential GHG

dumping rights to A1 countries.

The desire to accumulate more wealth

expands colonization and privatization of new

land and water spaces, resulting in economic

growth. It is like riding a perpetual motion

machine which is addictive and from which the

rider cannot get off. As emissions increase with

growth, so does the need for more carbon space.

Preferential ownership or dumping rights over

nature sanctifies and perpetuates an unequal class

society, and invariably generates conflict.

These contentious but fundamental issues

are skirted in the COP discussions, and technical

fixes are instead proffered—energy efficiency,

alternate energy sources and carbon capture.

Technology can help, but cannot solve the

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problem of energy overdraw. Energy efficiency

has technical limits. History shows that greater

efficiency increases consumption, not reduce it.

Green energies are less energy dense than fossil

fuels, so are less attractive. Solar and wind energy

provide less than 0.5% of the 13 Gtoe (giga tonnes

of oil equivalent2) of global commercial energy

consumption today and are not yet capable of

replacing fossils. Nuclear energy has stagnated

as it has safety and cost issues. More importantly,

economically mineable uranium ore can fuel

current nuclear generation capacity for just

another 100 years. Carbon capture is an

unproven technology.

COP delegates negotiate to maximize their

countries’ gain while minimizing their give-

aways. Global warming is a global problem.

Only those who can set aside national identities

can tackle it best. Alas, such negotiators do not

exist today.

For human society to become sustainable,

four global-level actions are needed: halving

current global energy consumption; moving

towards energy equity; relying primarily on the

sun for our energy; eschewing anthropocentrism

and altering private ownership rights over nature

to usufruct rights by changing human society’s

outlook from “gain maximization for a few” to

“risk minimization for all.” This implies that

North America must reduce its energy

consumption by 90% and other A1 countries by

75%; guarantee minimum sustenance energy to

all; innovate in new solar and biomass energy

technologies; and implement a uniform risk and

emission standards for all people.

These actions pose philosophical, political

and technological challenges that national leaders

alone cannot tackle. People must help and guide

them, as they did recently in the climate change

marches across the world with the slogan, “Keep

the climate, change the economy.”

If Gandhi’s saying, “The world has enough

for everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed” is not

heeded, and if we fail to leave two thirds the

remaining fossil fuels reserves underground to

avoid overshooting the 1,000 GtCO2

of the

remaining carbon space, nature will resolve the

global warming problem with peak oil, i.e., oil

extraction maxing followed by decline, which is

happening now. At current consumption rates,

there are only about 45 years of conventional oil

reserves left, 55 years of conventional gas and

100 years of coal, after which the fossil fuel era

ends. Mining of emission-intensive

unconventional oil and gas (shale, etc.) is banned

in many parts of Europe, America and Africa. If

the COP climate negotiation process does not

tackle global warming quickly, effectively and

justly, the consequences of peak oil will be

harsher than that of global warming, and may

lead to a possible civilizational regress.

Notes

1 A Giga tonne (Gt) = 109 tonnes.

2 A tonne of oil equivalent (toe) is the amount

of energy contained in 1 tonne of crude oil

= 42 Giga joules

(The author’s email id is sagdhara@yahoo.com)

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There are several positive actions that need

to be taken e.g., implementing rainwater

harvesting structures, giving impetus to rooftop

solar energy panels for power generation, solid

waste segregation, and some that are not so

positive, e.g., setting up pithead power plants to

supply power to Hyderabad.

To make a greener city, resource inputs such

as energy, water should be optimized and

efficiently used, and air, water and solid wastes

should be minimized. Developed countries have

the money to treat their wastes whereas India

does not. Hence, wastes accumulate in India and

impact the environment and human health.

India needs to re-think its policies. It should

switch from the current thinking of “pollute first,

think of cleanup later” to “avoid polluting, cleanup

money is insufficient.”

The sectors that consume significant

amounts of energy and generate the maximum

wastes are: transport, industry and residential

areas (see Table 1). It is these sectors that we need

to concentrate on to reduce resource

consumption and wastes.

Transport is one of the easier sectors where

energy and waste minimization can be done.

Switching to CNG engines in public transport

Practical Ideas For A Greener City

Sagar Dhara

Table 1 Commercial energy and biomass use

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would reduce sulphur emissions but it does not

reduce the prevalence and incidence of asthma

in a cityas fine particles in the air do not reduce.

The solution for this problem lies in

reducing the number of trips and trip-distance

made in a day, and switching to transport modes

that consume less energy per passenger.kilometer

(p.km). Here are a few practical suggestions that

may make Hyderabad a greener city.

Vehicle share schemesCar travel consumes the maximum energy—

2.9 mega joules2 (MJ) per passenger-kilometre

(p.km)—in comparison to all other modes (Table

2), and train travel the least (0.1 MJ/p.km). Car

travel’s share of the p.km done in India in 2012

was just 8%, but consumed 40% of energy spent

in transporting people by fossil fuelled prime

movers. The corresponding figures for bus travel

was 66.4% of all p.km and 28% of energy

consumed. And for train travel, they are 12% of

all p.km travelled and 2% of energy consumed.

Hyderabad is building a large metro rail

system. However, a metro rail requires a large

infrastructure to be built, and that entails

significant energy costs and air emissions.

There are cheaper ways of reducing

transport energy costs and emissions. One of

them is to encourage enterprises to set up vehicle

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(bicycles, 2-wheelers, cars) share schemes. A

subscriber to such a scheme can pick up a vehicle

in the scheme from any point he finds it and drop

it off at point where he wishes to go, as long as it

is within the vehicle’s transit jurisdiction. Access

to a vehicle may be gained by using a common

key or by punching sending a password to a

server through phone lines. Vehicles could be

tracked using GPS trackers. An enterprise

operating such a scheme will have to protect

against vehicle theft.

There are around 535 bicycle-sharing

programmes around the world with an estimated

fleet of 517,000 bicycles, the largest being in

China. Car share systems have become popular

in cities like New York. No information exists

on 2-wheeler share schemes. But there is no

reason why such a scheme cannot be started in

Hyderabad.

A variation of this scheme is to develop an

app that facilitates vehicle owners to do vehicle-

pooling.

Encourage neighbourhood schools,abolish coaching classes

In the field of education, trip distances can

be reduced by mandating that children should

go to neighbourhood schools and abolishing

coaching classes. This is already in vogue in

several developed countries. With 7.5 million

school and college-going students travelling an

average of 10 km less/day by implementing

neighbourhood schools and abolishing coaching

classes in Hyderabad, several million litres of

diesel would be saved per annum.

Neighbourhood schools will improve

educational standards in government schools and

reduce the divide between the rich and the poor.

These measures may be implemented over a 10

year period to permit continuity of schools for

those children who have already been admitted

to certain private schools.

Similar energy-saving exercises can be done

for every sector, e.g., health, law and order, social

justice, etc.

Energy and Carbon footprintingThe government should pass a legislation

mandating all government ministries and

departments (central and state), enterprises

(corporations, firms, shops and establishments)

that have over 100 employees and residential

colonies that have over 500 families to do energy

and carbon footprinting and energy and carbon

audits annually. Footprints should be attached

to annual reports and audited statements

(wherever such statements are mandatory) of the

organization and also submitted to Delhi

Government, which then may put them up on a

website. It is desirable that energy and carbon

footprints of each organization reduce by 3% per

annum. Energy and carbon footprint tools for

India are available.

Such a measure would go a long way in

raising awareness about energy and carbon costs

and also result in organizations reducing their

energy consumption bills.

����� ���� ��� ��� ����

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������ �������������������������������� �� �� ���� ��� ����� ���

���� �� � ��� ���� � ����� � !� ���� ���

�� �!���������������� ��� �� � � ��� ��

Table 2 Energy use in various transport modes in India in 2012

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Carbon footprint computations doneby activists for Goa’s iron ore miningindustry

Carbon footprinting was done for the Goa’s

iron ore mining by activists at the end of a carbon

footprinting workshop held in 2011. The results

indicate that it would cost Rs 7,500 crores to raise

1,800 km2 of plantations required to sequester

14 lakh tonnes CO2 emissions per annum, i.e.,

three fourths the profits made by the iron ore

mining industry in 2009-10. Human appropriated

net primary production lost by nature on 700

km2 of mining area is equal to the energy

contained in 210 Hiroshima-sized atomic bombs.

Carbon footprint analysis of the Goa iron

ore mining industry provides clues to the cost of

injury to nature and the cost for restitution.

Carbon and energy footprinting provides useful

information

Notes:

1 Gtoe = Giga (109) tonnes of oil equivalent.

A tonne of oil equivalent = 42 giga joules

2 MJ = Mega (106) joules

(You can write to the author at:

sagdhara@yahoo.com)

photo : T. Swamy

Hussain Sagar surplus wier inside Dt. 03-06-2015

photo : T. Swamy

Hussain Sagar near surplus wier, inside Dt. 03-06-2015

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First of all I wish all of you a Happy World

Environment Day 2015 (5th June 2015)

Considering the faster rate of environmental

destruction mainly by the large scale illegal

human activities in different parts of the country,

it has become very essential and necessary for

every individual human being to understand the

importance of our environment in the right

context.

The Government of India, N.G.Os and

every individual has an important role and moral

responsibility towards the protection of our

environment. Unless each one of us contribute,

we cannot improve the quality of the present

day environment and enhance its capacity to

fulfill the minimum basic needs of the

uncontrolled population growth.

A larger section of the population especially

in rural areas have to be made to understand the

importance of our environment as well as the

consequences of the faster rate of its destruction.

There have been several laws formulated for

environmental protection and safety but have not

been strictly implemented leading to continous

degradation of our environment. In my opinion,

the government has to act tough on the offenders

in the areas of Deforestation, illegal mining,

Environmental Protection: Need Of The Hour

Dr. Narayan SangamGeologist and Associate Professor, Department of Civil Engineering

Vignan Institute of Technology and Science

illegal changes in the landuse patterns,

exploitation of natural resources, improper

disposal of solid waste and environmental

pollution and illegal hunting of wildlife.

The developmental projects are also

responsible for their direct or indirect impact on

environment and its components and for this

reason, the government has to study the details

of Environmental Impact Assessment reports for

these projects before the start of these projects.

Only those developmental projects should be

given clearance which will have either no effect

or a very least impact on our environment.

The government of India should also take

the initiative to provide different types and

colours of dustbins in all the localities within the

country and educate the people about the

importance of solid waste management.

The authorities of the pollution control

board should also act very tough on the industries

and people responsible for release of higher levels

of pollutants in the environment to prevent

global warming.

I sincerely urge all the citizens of the country

to understand the importance of environmental

protection and safety and contribute whatever

they can towards its protection.

WWWWWith Best With Best With Best With Best With Best Wishesishesishesishesishes

FFFFFromromromromrom

HAVOVI & KERSI PATEL

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The latest and most important

environmental concern for both scientists and

everyone alike today is the problem of Global

Warming. This phenomenon is leading the Earth

towards slow destruction.

Global Warming(GW) is the steady increase

of the Earth’s average surface temperature due

to the effect of greenhouse gases; such as carbon

dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels or

from deforestation, which trap the Earth’s heat

that would otherwise escape from the Earth.

Scientists believe that our climate has

undergone a sea of change in the last couple of

decades.

Many colder regions are getting warmer by

the year and glaciers and snow capped mountains

are melting slowly. We have enough proof that

the Himalayas(our pride) and Mt Everest are

decreasing in height

every year. Oceans are

getting warmer and

warmer and this is

killing a lot of marine

life as their natural

ecological balance is

being disturbed.

Global Warming is

not good for us. It has

serious side effects. The

water levels in the

oceans are rising, there

is drastic change in the

weather patterns, we are

losing on precious

aquatic life and are

Global Warming

Kumari Adhya Kartik Class V, Oakridge International School (Age- 9 years)

overall disturbing the ecological balance of life.

During our daily life, we may not spare a

thought for how Global Warming has affected

the Earth, but I often think of what we are

turning the world into, because I care. Mother

Earth needs us to co-operate with her. We need

to spare some thought for the next generation.

We should not cut trees, we should not burn

fossil fuels, we should avoid using automobiles

for short distances and we should strongly stand

against deforestation. But this is a tough battle,

we need to strike a balance between being selfish

for our own needs and taking care of Earth for

our future.

Let us pledge to give nature and mother

Earth the space that is due to her.

Let us take care of OUR Earth and in return,

we shall be able to live a happier and longer life.

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Main ek mamooli darakth hoon,

Main kewal ek imli ka darakth hoon.

Barson se isi jagah par khada hoon,

Ek baar kuch insaanon ki zindagi

Bachaane ka mauka mujhe mila tha.

Main khaamosh khada raheta hoon,

Har taraf dekhta raheta hoon,

Chale jaatein hain sab apney hi dhun mein,

Kisiko parwah hi nahiin hain.

Who sab hain beparwah insaan,

Unko nahiin maalum hai meri kahaani,

Kayi log mujhe kaat daalna chahate the,

Par kaiyon nein bachaana chaaha.

Saal mein ek baar aa jaatein hain sab ke sab,

Yaad karne meri who kahaani,

Main toh roz yaad karta hoon un sab ko,

Kaash who yeh baath kabhi samajh jaatein!

Kacchra koodha padha rehta hai chau taraf,

Pahele yeh sab yahaan se hath jaaye,

Marammat ho jaaye seedhiyon ki

Aur saath mein chabootre ki bhi.

Meri khwaish hai ke mere ird gird mein

Ban jaaye baagicha nyaara,

Bachche, Badhe, Buzurg roz aayein yahaan par,

Khelney, guftgu karnein aur dil bahelaaney.

Main yeh bhi chahata hoon ki mere shakhon par

Kayii parinde ghonsla banaayein,

Roz bachche aur buzurg shor gul karein

Aur girtey huye imli khakar lutf uthayein.

* * *

This poem in Urdu is about the grand old Tamarind tree (a Heritage tree) in the Osmania

Hospital compound which saved the lives of 150 people way back on 27/9/1908.

Main Wahi Purana Imli Ka Darakth

Sanghamitra Malik

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FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490,St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

To Dt: 19.3.2015

Dr. Rajiv Sharma

Chief Secretary toTelangana State Govt.

Telangana State Secretariat,

Hyderabad -500 022.

Sir,

Sub: Proposed shifting of the Telangana State Govt Secretariat to Erragadda T.B & Chest Hospital Site.

***

This is to bring to your kind notice that the above-mentioned shifting, already notified vide G.O No Rt

No.61 dated 27-01-2015 for shifting T.B and Chest Hospital from Erragadda to the old T.B Sanatoriumin Anantgiri

Hills in Vikarabad, violates the heritage regulations of the State Government. Thus, at the existing Secretariat , the “G

Block” for the conservation of which already the Telangana Government had taken a decision and allocated money

and conservation experts have been engaged, is likely to be impacted upon if the Secretariat is shifted. We would like to

have a definite assurance that in case the shifting takes place, there would be no adverse impact on the G Block and its

conservation and no incongruity with the proposed uses of the Secretariat building, which have not yet been announced.

Secondly, the use of the Erraguda Chest hospital will lead to destruction of the In-Patient Block of the Chest

Hospital, widely known as a Heritage Building, apart from losing valuable Lung Space right in the middle of commercial

hub - “Green Belt” in the campus, a notified Urban Forest Area. It is bound to add to already existing high levels of Air

Pollution and prevailing high temperatures in “Concrete Jungle” of Hyderabad .

City is already Breathing Less

The Hon’ble A.P. High Court in its landmark judgement on WRIT PETITIONS W.P. Nos.25835/96 and 35/

97, observed that “The city is already breathing less than required breath and further depletions, by acts of the state, of

the lung spaces of the city will make the breathing more difficult” (Pages 51 - 52).

It was also observed that “Whatever little scope was available to argue that the Government of the State represent

the sovereign and retained thus its eminent domain in deciding in respect of the use of a public place one way or the

other is taken away by the Constitution (Seventy-Fourth Amendment) Act, 1992 and Article 243W(a) therein read

with the list in the Twelfth Schedule” (Page 49).

Appeal

In the light of the position explained above, the proposal for relocating the State Secretariat, if any, and the

shifting of Chest Hospital to Anantgiri Hills Vikarabad be reconsidered. Also request that transparency, public

consultation and involvement of stake holders, the cardinal principles of Good Governance be ensured in the decision

making process .

Looking forward for an early response.

Thanking You,

(M.VEDAKUMAR)

President, Forum For a Better Hyderabad

Copy to the Commissioner, HMDA, Secunderabad.

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FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490,St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

Dt. 8.4.15

To

The Commissioner, HMDA,

Secunderabad

Dear Sir,

Sub: Proposed shifting of the Telangana State Govt Secretariat to Erragadda T.B & Chest

Hospital Site. Our letter dt 19.3.2015

Further to our above letter, please advise us the disposal of the following Minutes

Of the Heritage Conservation Committee : “EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE

HERITAGE CONSERVATION COMMITTEE

Minutes of the 113th Meeting of the Heritage Conservation Committee dated 06.09.2011

Item No. II, 14. D.O.Lr.No. G1/GG &CH/186/2011-12, dated: 4.7.11 received from Dr. P.

Navanith Sagar Reddy – Requesting inclusion of Chest Hospital in Heritage List Reg.

Noted. The committee suggested to include this building in additional Heritage Building list.”.

In the absence of rejection by the prescribed procedure, the proposal is considered as pending.

Further a detailed Note establishing its heritage character and the considered heritage status

given to various other buildings despite formal non-notification as heritage is given in the Note.

In the circumstances, the Chest Hospital cannot be demolished.

Yours faithfully,

(M.MANDAL)

Member, FBH

Encl : our letter dt 19.3.15.

: Note on the heritage character of the Chest Hospital

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FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490,St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

Dt. 8.4.15

Dr. Rajiv Sharma

Chief Secretary toTelangana State Govt.

Telangana State Secretariat,

Hyderabad -500 022.

Dear Sir,

The attached letter is sent herewith to you with reference to our earlier letter dt 19. 3.2015, copy

enclosed.

Yours faithfully,

(M.MANDAL)

Member, FBH

Our letter dt 19.3.2015

Note on the heritage character of the Chest Hospital.

Copy forwarded to the Office of the Honourable Chief Minister.

NOTE ON THE GOVERNMENT CHEST HOSPITALThe Govermnent Chest Hospital is a notable heritage building of Hyderabad. It was constructed

in the last decade of the 19th century by Nawab Mir Sarfaraz Hussain Khan Safdar Jung, Musheer-

ud-Dawla, Fakhr-ul-Mulk II (1857-1934), one of the Umera-e-Uzzam (premier nobles) of Hyderabad

State who named it Iram Numa (an image of Paradise).

Iram Numa was one of the three main residences of the Nawab who had constructed another

even more imposing palace known as the Iram Manzil which presently serves as an important office

complex of the government and houses the Chief Engineer of the state. The architecture of Iram

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Numa is predominantly influenced by European style and has hints of ornate baroque features

which make it one a kind masterpiece to have survived the ravages of time. Additionally, all the

structures of the palace complex are notable and need to be protected, conserved and preserved as

vestiges of the architectural fabric which has made the city famous.

One of the prime factors which govern the protection of samples of built heritage is the

associational value of a structure and the Iram Numa qualifies eminently for consideration under

this category too. It must be remembered that Fakhrul Mulk as Founder President of the City

Improvement Board, was instrumental in ensuring not just the restructuring of the city post the

devastating flood of 1908, but was also responsible for the selection of such luminaries like Sir

Nizamat Jung, who guided the board in all its activities as Secretary for almost 25 years. As such,

the personal contributions of these two active contributors to erstwhile Hyderabad State and society,

especially in terms of their individual creations which impacted the architectural fabric of the city,

should be considered prime indicators of a movement which transformed Hyderabad from a city

festering from the ravages of floods and pestilence into a glorious metropolis. Incidentally, both

were great enthusiasts of classical European architecture, but took care not to impose their personal

preferences on the CIB, thereby ensuring the evolution of a distinct style for Hyderabad.

It may be noted that the Heritage Conservation Committee (HCC) has already

recommended inclusion of the Chest Hospital in the ‘Heritage List’ more than 3 years back.

(refer extract of Minutes of Meeting of HCC held on 06.09.2011 given below). It is believed the

recommendation is one of the more than 30 structures, precincts, etc. that have been forwarded to

the government for further action. It may be noted that the HCC had also recommended inclusion

of the G-Block of the Secretariat subsequent to orders passed by the Hon’ble High Court as part of

the aforementioned exercise. Further, it is relevant to also note that the Court ruled in favour of the

HCC deciding the question of whether the G-Block was a heritage building or not despite it not

featuring in the list. The HCC subsequently recommended inclusion of the G-Block in the Heritage

List (in its 113rd meeting held on 06.09.2011) under New Items (3) when dealing with letters

received from the Forum for Better Hyderabad; (O.M.Debara, Secretary, dt.11.07.2011 and M.

Vedakumar, President dt. 25.6.2011 & 26.8.2011) wherein “the committee suggested to notify this

building in the additional Heritage Building list”.

Unfortunately, successive governments have failed to initiate action on the recommendations

of the HCC with regard to augmentation of the heritage list and the callous attitude towards heritage

is abundantly manifest in the fact that the Heritage Conservation Committee itself has been defunct

since the term of the last committee expired in April 2013.

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FORUM FOR A BETTER HYDERABAD“CHANDRAM” 490,St.No.12, Himayatnagar, Hyderabad-500029

Mobile: 9030626288, Fax: 0091-40-27635644,

E-mail: betterhyd@yahoo.co.in Website: www.hyderabadgreens.org

Dt: 15.5.15

To

The Commissioner,

H.M.D.A.,

Secunderabad.

Dear Sir,

Twin towers to come up in Osmania General Hospotal ( OGH ), HB No II B, Sl no 61.

v/ report in Deccan Chronicle dt 9.4.15.

Pl refer to the attached Deccan Chronicle report captioned “ Twin towers to come up in OGH, …”

Pl ease advise us whether there is a proposal to that effect, or is in the pipeline.

We have to advise that OGH is a notified heritage building under Regulations No 13(1) of the

Hyderabad Urban Development Zoning Regulations , 1981 made under sub-section (1) of section

59 of the A.P.Urban Urban Areas (Development) Act, 1975 Act ; and GO Ms No 542, M.A. dt

14.12.1995, Regulation 13 has to be complied with , before any interfering with heritage building.

Thanking You,

Sincerely,

(Dr. M. MANDAL)

Member,FBH

Encl : DC report; 9.4.15

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In the city of Hyderabad, we are responsible

for producing 4000 metric tons of waste per day.

Because of this fact both the government

and environmental associations are trying to

develop numerous methods of dealing with the

problem. Waste management is that solution, a

rather complex issue that encompasses several

different industries as well. Waste management

is collection, transportation, and disposal of

garbage, sewage and other waste products.

Waste management is the process of treating

solid wastes and offers variety of solutions for

recycling items that don’t belong to trash. It is

about how garbage can be used as a valuable

resource. Waste management is something that

each and every household and business owner

in the world needs. Good waste management

would be to dispose of the products and

substances that we have already used, in a safe

and efficient manner.

We generate a lot of waste. This needs

proper monitoring. The waste has to be handled

and treated and reused and the residue has to be

disposed off. Solid waste consists of domestic

Waste Management

Sanghamitra Malik

waste, institutional, commercial and industrial

waste. Then there is agricultural as well as

medical and hazardous waste as well as sewage

sludge.

We should try and reduce the volume of

waste at source and try to reuse, recycle as far as

possible and go for composting whenever

possible. Landfills and incineration are very

common. At home we can start using many

techniques, like reduction and reuse, which

works to reduce the amount of disposable

material used.

Landfilling is a popularly used method of

waste disposal used today. In this process, the

waste is disposed off by burying it in the land.

Landfills are found in many areas. There is a

process used that eliminates the odours and

dangers of waste before it is placed into the

ground but it is not being observed as I have seen

during my visit to the Jawaharnagar dumping

ground where the waste of the twin cities is still

being sent.. While it is true this is the most

popular form of waste disposal it is certainly far

from the only procedure.

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This method is becoming unpopular these

days owing to the lack of space available and the

strong presence of methane and other landfill

gases, both of which cause numerous

contamination problems. Many areas are

reconsidering the use of landfills.

Incineration or combustion is a type of

disposal method in which municipal solid wastes

are burnt at high temperatures so as to convert

them into residue and gaseous products. The

biggest advantage of this type of method is that

it can reduce the volume of solid waste to 20 to

30 percent of the original volume, decreases the

space they take up and reduces the stress

on landfills. This process is also known as

thermal treatment where solid waste materials

are converted by incinerators into heat, gas,

steam and ash.

Resource recovery is the process of taking

useful discarded items for a specific next use. The

discarded items are processed to extract or

recover materials and resources or convert them

to energy in the form of usable heat, electricity

or fuel.

Recycling is the process of converting waste

products into new products to prevent energy

usage and consumption of fresh raw materials.

Recycling is the third component of

Reduce, Reuse and Recycle waste hierarchy. The

idea behind recycling is to reduce energy usage,

reduce volume of landfills, reduce air and water

pollution, reduce greenhouse gas emissions and

preserve natural resources for future use.

Composting is an easy and natural bio-

degradation process that takes organic wastes

like. remains of plants and garden and kitchen

waste and turns into nutrient rich food for our

plants. Composting, normally used for organic

farming, occurs by allowing organic materials to

stay in one place for months until microbes

decompose it. Composting is one of the best

methods of waste disposal as it can turn unsafe

organic products into safe compost. However,

it is a slow process and takes some amount of

space.

Waste to Energy process involves converting

of non-recyclable waste items into usable heat,

electricity, or fuel through a variety of processes.

This type of source of energy is a renewable

energy source as non-recyclable waste can be used

over and over again to create energy. Waste to

Energy is the generation of energy in the form

of heat or electricity from waste.

We need to reduce creation of waste

materials thereby reducing the amount of waste

going to landfills. Waste reduction can be done

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through recycling old materials like plastic

covers, waste paper, glass, plastic bottles, rubber

items, jars and bags and repairing broken items

instead of buying new ones, avoiding use of

disposable products like plastic bags as much as

possible, reusing second hand items.

Recycling and composting are the best

methods of waste management. Composting is

so far only possible on a small scale, either by

private individuals or in areas where waste can

be mixed with farming soil or used for

landscaping purposes. Recycling is widely used

around the world, with plastic, paper and metal

leading the list of the most recyclable items.

There are certain waste types that cannot

be disposed of without special handling which

will prevent contamination from occurring.

Biomedical waste is one example of such waste.

This is found in hospitals and health care facilities

and similar institutions.

As you can see there are plenty of important

things that one should know about waste

management and disposal in order to ensure that

we are safe, as well as that we are keeping the

environment safe. It is our choice as to how we

will dispose off waste, however it is always in

our best interest to take a look at all of the options

that are available before making the choice.

At home, it is absolutely essential for us to

segregate the garbage that we generate, at source.

People need to be taught the method of

segregation and made aware of environmental

pollution.The tricycles in which the garbage is

picked up from our homes should have separate

compartments to keep the dry and wet waste

separate. Even the trucks that transport the

garbage from the collection centres or dustbins

should be provided with partitions. To bring in

more efficiency, two days in a week could be

allotted for lifting the dry waste which is mostly

recyclable.

Table continues…

Guidelines for segregation of waste

WET WASTE-Organic DRY - WASTE Inorganic HAZARDOUS

Vegetable/ Fruit peels Plastic Covers Battery Cells

Cooked food Waste paper Syringes/needles

Coconut shell/coir Broken glass Chemicals

Garden waste/dry leaves Rags/ cloth pieces Paint

Plants Iron items Left over medicines

Dry flowers Plastic Sanitary napkins

Dust/mud Plastic boxes

Dead insects/cockroaches Rubber items

Ceramic items

Bulbs/tubelights

Cardboard boxes

Paper

Certain types of wrapping paper

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The destruction of world’s forest has been amajor concern ever since humans realized theimportance of forests to sustain life on earth.Nevertheless the human greed for prosperity hasignored this fact and the destruction continueseven now despite the clear knowledge of theconsequences. Overall, deforestation has beentaking place at a pace of about 130 000 km2 (13million hectares) per year during the period1990–2005 (an area the size of Greece), with fewsigns of a significant decrease over time. Forestarea decreased worldwide by 0.22% per year inthe period 1990-2000 and 0.18% per year between2000 and 2005. (Forestfacts.org) The forest coverin India is 20.60 per cent or 67.71 million hectaresof the total geographic area of the country. Ofthis 1.66 per cent is very dense forest, 10.12 percent is moderately dense, and the rest 8.82 percent is open as per the report released recentlyby MoEF, India. (The Hindu, 13 Feb 2008)

Deforestation is associated with a wholerange of environmental problems such as severeflooding, accelerated loss of soil, encroachingdeserts and declining soil productivity.Sometimes we get the impression that theseproblems are unique to our time, but vast areasof surface of the earth were stripped of their tree

Trees and Human History

Dr. K. Babu Rao

cover well before the modern period.Environmental historians have now documentedthe impacts of the loss of trees/forest in variousparts of the world at different times in humanhistory and how that affected the course of theirdevelopment. Following examples taken fromseveral sources (www.american.edu;www.aseh.net; etc) on the consequences ofdestruction of forests are presented here.

6000 BC - Deforestation led to collapse ofcommunities in southern Israel / Jordan.

2700 BC - Sumerian epic of Gilgameshdescribes vast tracts of cedar forests in what is nowsouthern Iraq (Part of Fertile Crescent that gaveagriculture to the world). Its woodlands werecleared for agriculture or cut to obtainconstruction timber or burned as firewood or formanufacturing plaster. Because of low rainfall andhence low primary productivity (proportional torainfall), regrowth of vegetation could not keeppace with its destruction, especially in the presenceof overgrazing by abundant goats. With the treeand grass cover removed, erosion proceeded andvalleys silted up, while irrigation agriculture inlow rainfall environment led to salt accumulation.By 2100 BC, soil erosion and salt buildup havedevastated agriculture. One Sumerian wrote thatthe “earth turned white.” Civilization movednorth to Babylonia and Assyria. Again,deforestation became a factor in the rise andsubsequent fall of these civilizations.

500 BC - forward — Greek coastal citiesbecame landlocked after deforestation, whichcaused soil erosion. The siltation filled in the baysand mouths of rivers.

The Phoenicians, one of the oldest sea-tradingnations in the world, needed timbers for their shipsand used the cedars of Lebanon to construct them.Writers such as Homer, Pliny, and Plato, alongwith the Old Testament provide us with well

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documented descriptions of the once richlyforested mountains of Lebanon. The Bible vividlydescribes the practice of rulers in the AncientMiddle East to fell cedar trees to build massivemonuments. According to Perlin most of theAncient Middle East lost its forests by the end ofthe third millennium BC. This removed one ofthe fundaments under the ancient civilisations inthe Middle East and as a consequence the centreof trade and power in the Mediterranean movedto Crete and the Greek world.

However, in the early second millenniumBC, the Minoan civilisations developed on Creteand this civilisation was based on the abundantavailability of wood. This was used as fuel in thecopper furnaces for the production of bronze,the major export of Crete at that time. TheMinoan civilisations flourished for about 600years, but by 1450 BC it collapsed almost entirelycaused by the massive deforestation of the island.The Minoan civilisation had to turn to Greecefor its timber and fuel supplies and soon thecentre of gravity moved to the Greek world

For the Romans, as for other civilisationsbefore, wood played an important role in theireconomy. The importance of wood is reflectedin Pliny’s Natural History. He devoted books XIIto XVI of this work entirely to trees andrecognised the importance of forests for humanexistence: the trees and forests were supposed tobe the supreme gift bestowed by her on man.These first provided him with food, their foliagecarpeted his cave and their bark served him forraiment (clothing)”.

The Roman Empire’s expansion into Syriahad very harmful effects on the cedar trees inthe mountains. It was not until the EmperorHadrian put up boundaries around the remainingforests and declared them his Imperial Domainthat the destruction of the forests was slowed.

Venice paid the price for its rapid expandingsea power. The first signs of timber shortage canbe identified by the end of the 15th century andby 1590 they had to import complete ship hulls.Soon Venice had to abandon the prominentposition as a maritime power and the centre ofmaritime activity shifted for the first time awayfrom the Mediterranean to the Atlantic and

North Sea coasts.After years of preparation Philip II ordered

in 1588 The Armada to attack and invadeEngland. The invasion failed and the Armada wasdestroyed. The construction of The Armada inthe 1580’s left large parts of Spain devoid of trees.It was the end of Spanish supremacy at sea. Thecountries around the North sea had access toabundant forests in Scandinavia, the Baltics andGermany. But also in the south of England weresome reserves of wood available. This allowedEngland, France and Holland to build large fleetsto take advantage of the opening up of the worldseas and become major colonial powers.

In just a few centuries, the people of EasterIsland wiped out their forest, drove their plantsand animals to extinction, and saw their complexsociety spiral into chaos and cannibalism. (JaredDiamond, 1995)

Coming to India research shows that Britishrule caused rapid destruction of forests inKalahandi and displacement of the Kondh tribalscausing rise in famine vulnerability. InChotanagpur similarly indigenous strategies forcoping with local food shortages were graduallydestroyed by capitalist encroachment andcolonial state policy in the nineteenth century.Vinita Damodaran, University of Sussex, UKconsidered the most under-researched area ofresource use and management in rural India, thatof ‘wild resources’. These resources were ofcritical importance to the tribal people, not onlyfor their economic and nutritional value but alsofor the cultural and aesthetic values encompassedwithin hunting, fishing and gathering activities

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and with the natural world in general.The change from wood to coal as major

energy source had far reaching consequences. Thedepletion of forests for charcoal to fuel thesmelting and smithing processes, not onlyreduced the number of trees, but as Germantravellers noted that in the Bassar region thesmoke and smog of the smelting process couldbe seen from long distances. Air pollutionconsisting of oxides, fumes, ash, dust, and gaseouspollutants led to airborne contaminants thateventually contaminate the soils and vegetationsurrounding furnaces sites. Present day smeltingsites demonstrate the same impact that thesecontaminants had in the past. They retard plantgrowth, kill other plant species, and cause areduction in soil fertility. Soil erosion anddesiccation were direct consequences of small andlarge-scale iron smelting that forced populationsto migrate. They simply took their unsustainablesmelting practices to new sites where forest andarable land were plentiful. Without a doubt theprocesses implemented to obtain iron foreconomic transactions (domestic andinterregional) almost single-handedly led to thedeforestation of central and upper Togo. Similarconsequences occurred in Malawi, Ghana, Mali,Sudan, and Somalia etc.

Coke is a clean fuel that produces superioriron and therefore over time wood was replacedby Iron and coal as the chief constructionmaterial and major energy source. This processwas reinforced when the railways, also dependingon coal, could transport the fuel all over thecountry making the production of ironindependent of the location. The coal revolutionin England made it the first country to leave thewood era, and enter the true Iron Age.

These are only a few examples of documentedenvironmental history that emphaticallydemonstrate the need for conservation of trees andforests for sustainable living on planet earth.Rabindranath Tagore wrote “The culture of theforest has fueled the culture of India. The unifyingprinciple of life in diversity, of democraticpluralism, thus became the principle of Indiancivilization.” Jared Diamond in his article onEaster Islands End summarizes his concerns for

humanity, “Our risk now is of winding down,slowly, in a whimper. Corrective action is blockedby vested interests, by well-intentioned politicaland business leaders, and by their electorates, allof whom are perfectly correct in not noticing bigchanges from year to year. Instead, each year thereare just somewhat more people, and somewhatfewer resources, on Earth. It would be easy to closeour eyes or to give up in despair. If mere thousandsof Easter Islanders with only stone tools and theirown muscle power sufficed to destroy theirsociety, how can billions of people with metaltools and machine power fail to do worse? Butthere is one crucial difference. The Easter Islandershad no books and no histories of other doomedsocieties. Unlike the Easter Islanders, we havehistories of the past-information that can save us.”Ignoring these facts and refusing to learn fromhistory will certainly hasten our downfall andextinction of life on planet earth.

We are organically linked to the biosphereand no science and technology can provide asubstitute for that link. We have beendisconnecting with and abusing nature.Seemingly perceived, as normal acts of using treesresulted in major changes in human history. Wehave now acquired much greater capacity toexploit nature and facing the consequences in theform of Ozone layer depletion, climate change,air pollution, ocean acidification, loss ofbiological integrity etc. We need fundamentalchanges in our relationship to nature if we haveto survive this century. Let us learn from thepast mistakes.

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Bamboo is one of the fastest renewableresource that has many uses. Mature bambooround poles by themselves are structuralwonders that is best described as ‘functionallygraded natural composite’. Such ready to usemature timber is available in just three years of anew shoot sprouting out of the ground in themonsoon and what is more, with a negativecarbon foot print, i.e., by sequestering carbonemissions(CO

2) from the air even while giving

back oxygen. Further, bamboo bushes indeedhave a positive hand print for ecology since theyare great eco healers in many indecies such asimproving soil humus, moisture, fertility &underground water while reducing soil erosiondue to either down pours or winds.

With so many positives, the need of the houris to make bamboo ubiquitous, to begin with inurban areas.

Fortunately, bamboo can have a major roleto play in urban areas as well, in several areassuch as urban forestry, avenue plantations, bundprotection, greenery around high ways andservice roads or live fences cum crash guards.

In addition to all the above use of livebamboo bushes, out of the nearly year roundharvest of ‘mature bamboo round hollow timberpoles of exceptional specific strength (a measureof its load bearing capacity per unit self-weight), can be gainfully used in urban ‘Buildings withGreenery as Skin’(BGS) in the currently popularRCC framed structures. The use of bamboostructural can be eminently used in theappropriately located ‘green (poly or glass) houses’ to grow the greenery over the roof &all around the vertical walls of an RCC framedtall building . The bamboo structural elementssupporting the green houses are cost effective

Bamboo- New Urban Opportunities

Dr P SudhakarHaritha Ecological Institute

and sustainable. The transparent skin of the greenhouse lets in sun light while keeping out the rain,thus naturally protecting the bamboo in the support structure. Further protection of bamboo from just the sun light that gets through thegreenery is a lot easier and affordable while beingeco friendly.

In other words, the proposed ‘Buildingswith Greenery as Skin’ (BGS) is a new conceptwherein the component technologies are allindividually proven as noted below:

i) Greenery as Skin: Just the greenery overthe roof and vertical walls is already proven tobe one of the most efficient ways of mitigatingurban heat island effect with enhanced in doorair quality, and all this while reducing theoperational energy demands of the buildings.This is primarily due to the reduced heat gain ofthe building on account of extensive greenerythat functions as the thicker under layer of theskin.

ii) The green house: The transparent &water proof ‘outer sheath’ of the green houseforms the thin outer part of the skin. In essence,we are harvesting sun light through the vegetative

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greenery over the roof and the vertical walls. Itis well established that the productivity of a givenvegetation in a green house is much higher thanthat on the field open to sky.

For the greenery over tall urban buildings,further increase in productivity can be expectedby controlling the wind induced water stress,particularly in summer as also by going in for acombination of hydroponics and aeroponics.

iii) Passive and active solar cooling in tallbuildings is yet another established specialty withproven cost effectiveness over the past severaldecades.

A brief technical account of the potentialuse of bamboo structures in providing sheltersin GBS, for some of which, the engineeringvalidation has been done at IITD :

Keeping in view the already validated partsof technology, it is possible to have the entiretop level of an other wise RCC framed tallbuildings, totally with bamboo. This top levelas well as the structural support for the greenskin all around the building can be built withprimarily round and mature bamboo poles.

The above concept is illustrated in thefollowing rough sketch (not to scale):

Livelihoods using solar energy:The pink border lines in the above sketch

represent the thin transparent water proof outerskin that lets in sun light to be harvested throughgreenery all round the vertical walls as also onthe roof. It would also have perforations designedto let in fresh air promoting solar passive cooling.

Providing access to the vertical green spacesand the roof top as per an appropriate schedule,for the operation and maintenance would be thekey for the success of the ‘Buildings withGreenery as Skin’ (BGS). Most importantly, itprovides livelihoods for at least a part of the veryfarming community that gets displaced in theurbanization process and the entire economicsof greenery would be benefited immensely bythe invaluable traditional knowledge and skillset, already available with them for generations. The great expertise of Kadiyam farmingcommunity (near Rajahmandry) in nurseries,both technically as well as entrepreneurship wise, was almost wholly developed locally with, atbest, nominal inputs from the scientificcommunity or government’s fiscal incentives.

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There is no reason to doubt the ability ofreplicating the same expertise by the localfarming community in the new urban areasthrough BGS, with benefits to themselves and the expected new urban settlers.

Economics and greener environment:The drain water from the building can be

entirely treated locally that is adequate forirrigating the greenery and/or to flow into openlined channel where small boating can be plannedfor ‘pleasure and small trade for daily householdneeds like vegetables and fruits’. The idea is toimplement strictly the Supreme court guidelinefor industries to cover every building: zerountreated outflow from each building. The publicdrainage system would be primarily for stormwater. The treated drainage outflow from thebuildings - commercial or household does notmatter - can be further purified by aestheticallyplanned photo- remediation located at nearperiodic strategic small public spaces, wherefountains together with plants of the photo-remediation contribute their bit to the aestheticsalong with additional aeration. The communitycan only benefit from a holistic habitat designwith plentiful of walk/bicycle spaces,minimizing the need for motorised transport.

Role of IT:Irrigation and management for the

greenhouse farming to grow the greenery as skin

of the urban building itself can be through micro-drip based precision agricultural practices, whereIT can play a critical and big role. The extraunit cost of water treatment in such small sizedtreatment plants with in the building can be offsetto a large extent by the revenue from boatingfor pleasure and small trade.

Truly green buildings:The above well known green features of the

building can be further enhanced by using trulygreen building materials such as renewable oneslike bamboo or other timber and can beintegrated with other green features such asconcentrated solar thermal for tri-generation anddistributed micro wind mills.

The tall RCC framed building can meaneven 5 or more levels not counting the greenhouse on the roof top, even though the roughand ‘not to scale’ sketch shows only two levels.

Using bamboo based non-load bearing wallpanels, even after the desired thin sand cementmortar finish, would substantially reduce theweight of the walls by over 50%. Their semi-prefabrication and errection at site can speed upthe on-site construction time while the valueaddition during semi-prefabrication can be donein the adjoining rural areas with bamboo thatcan be grown locally.

Further, the reduced over all tall buildingweight due to replacement of heavy brick wallsby light weight bamboo wall panels, (also knownas Assamese walls and are standard items in PWDof Assam) immediately enhances the safety of theexisting tall buildings against earthquakes.

The typical gestation periods for harvestingmature bamboo poles would be under 6 years,during which time, bamboo can be importedform out side the region and well plannedlogistics of supply chain can be put in place. Inthe same time span, urban bamboo greenerywould also start yielding near continuous harvestof mature bamboo timber poles that supplementsthe local resources even while providing themuch needed clean air and pleasure of greenery.

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FORUM FOR A BETTERHYDERABAD celebrated its 14th FormationDay by coinciding with World EnvironmentalDay today from 10.30 a.m. at AdministrativeStaff College of India (ASCI), Hyd. Thedignitaries who graced the occasion were Prof.K.R.CHOWDRY, Executive Member ofInternational League of Peoples Struggle (ChiefGuest), Maj Gen R.C. PADHI,AdditionalSurveyor General, Survey of India, IndianInstitute of Surveying & Mapping,Smt.R.BHARATI DEVI, Heritage Activist,INTACH Hyderabad Chapter, Sri.A.V.BHIDE, Senior Urban PlanningConsultant, Hyderabad MetropolitanDevelopment Authority and the programme waspresided over by Sri.M.Vedakumar, President,Forum For A Better Hyderabad (FBH).

Forum For A Better Hyderabad has beenproviding platform to discuss various issues likeUrban Planning and Management, HeritageConservation, Lakes & Water Bodies,Afforestation, Rock Formation, TrafficManagement, Air & Water Pollution, Solid andIndustrial Management, Right to Informationetc. One major achievement of Forum is SavingG-Block in Secretariat (a heritage site) byprevailing upon the Govt.

Major Padhi appreciated the composition ofHyderabad and compared the city of now andin 1983. City has grown beyond recognition butduring this course the culture and heritage is lost.Government has to make Urban DevelopmentTown Mapping and Planning and in such effortsorganization like Forum who are passionate tosave city’s culture and heritage must comeforward and support the schemes ofGovernment.

Sri.A.V.Bhide congratulated the Forum andcited clear statistics to conclude thatEnvironmental pollution is an obstacle for Right

ENVIRONMENT DAY CELEBRATION

&

FORUM’S 14th ANNIVERSARY

to Life and sustainability.Smt.R.Bharati Devi expressed her desire to

contribute to the society but had impedimentsbecause of being a lady. But now under the shelterof INTACH & Forum, she is an activeparticipant.

Chief Guest Prof.K.R.Chowdry applaudedthe Forum which had made use of all legalweapons to fight with Government like Newsletter, Publications, Media and RTI to attain itstargets. Being an admirer of the uniqueness ofcity, he attributed the lopsided development ofcity to inadequate drainage system, poverty,unplanned mushrooming of slums, which led toenvironmental degradation. He insisted oneducating farmers of the use of organic manuringrather than chemical pesticides which give wayto diseases like diabetics, cancers etc., Of course,farmers need to be financially and socially helpedand incentives and marketing facilities have tobe forwarded.

Sri.M.Vedakumar, President, FBHinformed the audience about the activities ofForum Forum emphasized on implementationof GO 111, acknowledged the contribution ofsocial activists who contributed to the journalin their own way like Society to Save Rocks etc.,He said in order to attain sustainable Hyderabad,Musi Conservation Study Pilot Project wasundertaken by Forum in association withHumboldt University, Germany. In the nameof development, natural water resources, heritagestructures and trees are being lost. The MasterPlan should be designed in a such way thatwithout causing any disturbance to save theabove natural the sources.

The programme came to an end withdistribution of saplings to the dignitaries bysenior members of Forum and with vote ofthanks proposed by Sri.M.H.Rao, VicePresident, FBH.

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Sri. M. Vedakumar, President, Forum For a Better Hyderabadspeaking on the occasion

Smt. R. Bharati Surya Devi, Heritage Activist, INTACH HyderabadChapter, speaking on the occasion

Mr. M.H. Rao, Vice President, FBH handing over curry leaf plant to guests Audience at the function

Glimpses from Forum’s 14th Anniversary (5.6.2014)

Release of Annual Number

Maj Gen R.C. Padhi, Additional Surveyor General, Survey of India,Indian Institute of Surveying & Mapping, speaking on the occassion

Sri. A.V.Bhide, Senior Urban Planning Consultant, HyderabadMetropolitan Development Authority addressing the gathering

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I.W.P.NO.6725/2009The above writ petition was filed by Forum

For A Better Hyderabad, challenging the action

of the state government in diverting an extent of

Ac.4067 forest land situated in Imarath Kancha

village, Maheshwaram Mandal, Ranga Reddy

District and further an extent of Ac. 2400-36

guntas situated in Mamidipally village,

Saroornagar Mandal Ranga Reddy District to

non-forest purposes without obtaining the prior

permission of the Central Government under the

provisions of Forest (Conservation) Act1980 as

arbitrary and illegal. Court ordered notice to be

issued to. the government and forest department

The same is pending for adjudication.

II. W.P.No.3258/2008The above writ petition was filed by Mr.

O.M.Debara, challenging the action of the

GHMC demanding an amount of Rs.46,000/-for

providing sanction plan of Big Bazar at

Ameerpet, Hyderabad under RTI Act. The writ

petition was admitted and Hon’ble Court

directed the GHMC to provide the copies of the

plans by collecting photocopying charges. The

writ petition was disposed.

III. C.C.476/2008The above Contempt case was filed by

Mr.O.M. Debara, against Principal Secretary,

Revenue in allotting 275 acres of land at Ranga

Reddy District to the Housing Societies of

MLAs, MPs, Hon’ble High Court Judges, All

India Service Officers and Journalists contrary

to the judgment of the Hon’ble High Court in

W.P.NO.13730 of 2006. Notice was ordered to

the Revenue Secretary and the same is pending.

Status Of Court Cases As on 30-4-2015

IV. W.P.No. 18483/2008The writ petition was filed challenging the

notification of the MOEF which denies the right

of citizens to participate in public hearings when

the METRO Rail Project was taken up. Former

Secretary Ramachandriah and present Secretary

O M Debara filed this writ petition. Even before

the case was taken up for hearing, the alignment

was changed to avoid Hussain Sagar, water body.

There was an order that all further actions are

subject to further orders in the main case. The

case is pending. It is ripe for hearing and will be

listed shortly along with cases filed by Sri

Tarakam and Ameerpet residents.

V. WP No.18896/2007When the State Government sought to

amend the GO 111, Forum filed this case. The

interim order not to issue final notification

deleting some areas from G.O.111 is still in

operation.

VI. WPNo. 24623 of 2009In the name of Golf course the Golconda

Fortis being ravaged. Forum along with

PUCAAR filed this case. Interim order was

passed restraining the officers from taking up any

construction activity and any other works which

will change original contours.The HGA wanted

the stay to be vacated for which the court refused.

The grassing of the area was permitted without

changing the contours. The final MOU between

the ASI and the state government is also

challenged by way of miscellaneous petition. The

main case is awaiting final adjudication.

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VII. W.P.No. 29300 of 2012The above writ petition was filed seeking

courts intervention in demarcation of Qutb

Shahi Bagh in the NayaQuila. Based on

undertaking given that no work would be

undertaken until the demarcation is done by the

ASI the case was disposed of. The Forum has

now filed a contempt petition for non

demarcation of Qutab Shahi Bagh 345.

IX. CC case no 1820 of 2012A contempt petition was filed by the Forum

for violating various orders of the A.P. High

Court, the provisions of the AM & ASR Act

against ASI, YAT & C, GOAP, Hyderabad

District Collector, the HGA. The case came up

for hearing and counter-affidavits have since been

filed by YAT& C (GOAP) and Hyderabad

District Collector, but not yet by ASI. The case

has not come for further hearing.The Bench has

to be constituted.

X. NayaQuilaTalab/ Langar HouseTalab:

A case has been filed with AP High Court

in March 2013alleging mala-fide and/or

colourable exercise of power for reducing the

extent of the FTL water spread of Naya Quila

Talab / Langar House Talab ostensibly to favour

persons with vested interests in the surrounding

lands; that there have been impermissible

activities in the catchment areas of the Talab

affecting the water inflows and due to these

unregulated activities the water spread has been

shrinking and that no action had been taken by

the authorities to expeditiously fix the FTL.

XI. W.P No.22765 of 2009The above writ petition is filed challenging

allotment of Ac.1.20 guntas open space in

financial district layout at Madhapur by APIIC

for the construction of multi-storied building.

The case is admitted and interim order of status

quo is granted. The case is pending for disposal.

XII. W.P No.29207 of 2009The above writ petition is filed challenging

allotment of Ac. 20.00 guntas land to Mr Subhash

Ghai’s company opposite to Taramati Baradari

at Golkonda without calling for applications or

tenders. The above case was admitted and interim

order of suspension of allotment of land was

granted. The case is pending for disposal.

XIV. WP No. 8167 of 2010Fateh Darwaza is part of Golconda Fort to

be protected by ASI. Aurangzeb passed through

this gate after his victory. A new building was

built within 10 yards of the Fateh Darwaza.

Further construction activity and usage for

commercial activity are stayed. Notices have been

issued to the authorities. The officers have been

issuing notices but have not acted to demolish

or stop the usage. The final hearing is awaited.

XVI. WP No. 1636 of 2010The above writ petition filed in public

interest challenging the action of the

Government in alienating government land to

an extent of Ac.55.00 in Sy, No. 31, Neknampura

village, Rajendranagar Mandal, Hyderabad

district vid G.O.Ms. No. 509, Revenue (ASN.V)

Department, dated 14.06.2010 and an extent of

Ac.100.00 in Sy, No.923 to 926/p, 935, 946, 952

and 957 to 961/p situated at Jawaharnagar village

Shamirpet Mandal, R.R. District vid G.O.Ms.

No.509, Revenue (ASN.V) Department, dated

14.06.2010, in favour of The A.P. Secretariat

Employees Mutual Aided Coop. Housing

Society Ltd., as arbitrary, illegal, offending

Article 14 of the Constitution, and contrary to

the orders passed by this Hon’ble Court in

W.P.No.13730/2006, dated 8.10.2007 and

W.P.No. 7956, 7997/2008 dated 5.1.2010 etc. The

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Hon’ble Court admitted the case and granted

status quo orders. The writ petition is pending

for disposal.

XVII.PIL No.70 of 2012The above PIL was filed by Mr. Debara

seeking court intervention and monitoring the

ACB investigation into Liquor syndicates.

Directions sought from the court on making

ACB an independent organisation with freedom

in financial matters etc and further directions also

sought on review of more than 450 cases of

corruption in which the Government rejected

prosecution proposal of the ACB. The court

started monitoring the investigation and several

status reports were submitted to the court. The

ACB completed the investigation and

recommended action against 1000 persons. The

court also issued series of directions including

not to transfer the officials involved in the

investigation without Court’s permission. The

case is disposed of giving series of directions to

the Government and anti corruption bureau to

complete the investigation into the role of

politicians in liquor scam within three months

and to take action accordingly. The court further

directed that no permission of the Govt. is

required to investigate the crimes against the

public representatives and to give permission to

prosecute the public servants within three

months.

XX. PIL 282 of 2012Was filed complaining that in the name of

Metro Rail, the heritage structures are being

destroyed. The Division Bench of AP High

Court directed the Metro Rail authorities and

the Govt. to look into the matter and take final

decision especially in view of opinion of the

Heritage Conservation Committee. The order

is dt.13-8-2012. The Alignment was changed after

our case, as can be seen near the Assembly.

XXII. P Srinivas filed the case PIL No 507

of 2013 complaining against the cutting of trees

near Golf course at Golkonda fort. The bench

allowed the case directing planting of 10 times

the saplings for the trees cut. The Forest

department was asked to collect the money from

ASI of nearly two and half lakhs .

The bench observed: 3 “ We think that the

Forest Department is under an obligation under

the Statute not only to recover the fine amount

but also to see that the trees which have been

felled must come up afresh. Accordingly, we pass

an order that in the event the fine amount is not

recovered, it shall be recovered in accordance

with law from the party concerned within a

period of six weeks from the date of

communication of this order.

4. We find that in maintaining ecological

equilibrium and combating air pollution, the role

of trees is scientifically recognised and accepted,

for the trees during the day release oxygen

because of photosynthesis process and eliminate

carbon dioxide in the air. This was found on

scientific study. It was also found that at least 17

plants are required for one human being. Oxygen

is consumed during night not only by living

beings but also by plants and trees. Therefore,

during the night, quantum of oxygen is reduced

to a great extent. However, this is supplemented

during the day by photosynthesis process by trees

and plants. A contempt case is filed for

implementation of the orders. In the mean

while the ASI approached the court filed a

different WP and obtained stay of paying the

fine amount. Srinivas impleaded in the case

to bring the facts before the court.

Hussain Sagar De-watering Case: SOUL

took a leading part in this activity and filed cases

in the Green Tribunal, High Court and the

Supreme Court. The Forum members provided

technical inputs and documents fort the cases.

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Respected dignitaries on the Dais, Ladies &Gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to presentt to youa report of the Forum’s activities during the year2014 –2015. I am mentioning a few highlights ofthe activities and the broad directions.

The year gone by has been a very eventfulyear with the long drawn struggle materializingin the formation of a separate Telangana State.

Heritage Conservation:

1. The tenure of Heritage ConservationCommittee ended in March 2013 and a newcommittee has not yet been appointed. TheForum has written several letters to theerstwhile AP Government and the presentGovernment of Telangana State to re-constitute the Heritage ConservationCommittee. We have also requested the StateGovt. to revive the Urban Arts Commission,which is not functioning after 1982 or toenlarge the functions of the HCC to coverthe areas of work of the UAC, and to coverHCC’s jurisdiction to the entire State. Therehas been no response from the governmentso far. In a recent case filed in the High Courton the intension of the Government planningto demolish the heritage structure of the HighCourt has instructed the Government to re-constitute the Heritage ConservationCommittee. But no action has been taken bythe Government till date.

2. Blatant violation of Heritage conservationrules are taking place every day.Construction activities within the protectedareas of heritage buildings are taking placewith the Govt. turning a blind eye. When

FBH GENERAL SECRETARY’S REPORT 2014 – 15

the present Govt. intended to shift theSecretariat to the Chest hospital which is aheritage building, the Forum along withother NGO’s protested. A PIL was filed bysome affected parties, and the idea wasshelved.

3. Golf Course: In spite of letters being sent tothe Chief Minister of Telangana and itsChief Secretary regarding violations by GolfCourse inside the Naya Quila of GolcondaFort and the cases pending in the HighCourt, no action is forth coming. Instead oftaking action Ministerial level support isbeing given. Earlier, at the Ministerial level,no view was expressed for or against the golfcourse.

A contempt of Court has been filed in theHigh Court against the violations, which isbeing heard from time to time.

4. Biodiversity : FBH in letter dt.11-09-12 tothe Chief Secretary -with copies to HMDA,GHMC- have represented that the local BioDiversity Committee should not compriseof representatives of political parties. BDCshould be a specialised body comprising onlyof experts like the Pollution Control Board.

5. Water Bodies: The Supreme Court of Indiahad transferred all the cases before them tothe AP High Court asking it to dispose ofthe case within three months. The HighCourt only issued summons to the partywho filed the first case on Hussain Sagar lakeand since no one appeared on their behalfdisposed of the case. An appeal for therestoration of the case and all the aggrievedparties to be heard was filed. The High

O M Debara

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Court has restored the case. The Forum hasnow filed an application to be impleaded inthe case.

The Kudikunta water body in Kondapurwas enchroached upon. The Forum afterobtaining information under RTI act filed aPIL in the AP High Court.

Cases were filed in AP High Court by Dr.Jeevananda Reddy and by the Forum againstviolation of GO 111. The Court was upsetdue to lack of action by the government.The court instructed that a Lake ProtectionCommittee be formed immediately to lookinto the matter.

6. Change In Land Use: Forum has protestedto HMDA for frequent changes in presentlyearmarked land use patterns like, fromConservation use zone to Manufacturing/Industrial use zone, from Open Space toresidential/ industrial area zone. TheForum’s letters to the concerned authoritiesunder RTI Act wanting to know the finaldecision in certain cases and notings madeon our protest letters have not revoked anyresponse.

Of late, the situation has worsened. Despitealready inadequate open space, parks, playgrounds, admitted in the HMDA Masterplan, and despite repeated Courtobservations and orders prohibiting furtherdepletions in violation of the fundamentalrights under Articles 21 and 14, furtherdepletion is sought, e.g., Kalabharati at NTRstadium by a G.O., press reports aboutconstructing the Secretariat at Bison pologround after the Army agrees to transfer theland to the State government. The Forumstrongly objects to further depletion of openspace in any form.

7. Residents’ Welfare Associations : Dr. RaoVBJ Chelikani, President of the UnitedFederation of Residents WelfareAssociations has taken a lead in organizing

an All India Federation of Residents’Associations.

8. Tree Protection Committee – Under Walta:Designated members of the Forum are alsoon this committee, which generally meetsonce a month. A number of cases have cometo the committee’s notice in the recent pastwhere government bodies have cut downor have permitted cutting down treeswithout approval of this Committee. FBHhave written to the Divisional ForestOfficer, Aranya Bhavan, Hyderabad, onthat GO Rt No. 539 of 11-12-2008 becirculated to all Govt. departments andBuilders Association once every year as alot of violations are taking place.

9. Walta: In spite of letters to the concernedofficers no action is being taken againstowners of property and the boring jigowners for drilling bore wells 6 inches indiameter and beyond 500 feet deep.

10. Metro Rail : The Forum has requestedHyderabad Metro Rail authorities andconcerned State Govt. departments thatalignments should not cause demolition ofheritage buildings. HMRL has agreed totranslocate and / or do compensatoryplanting when trees have to be uprooted.

11. Website : The Forum’s websitewww.hyderabadgreens.org containsinformation about the Forum’s activitiesand other topics of interest. The website isupdated periodically.

Before I end, I would request those presentwho are not members of the Forum to joinus and give us a helping hand to moveforward and take up other major issues forthe betterment of Hyderabad.

I take this opportunity of thanking the TV& Print Media who have always comeforward to publish our views and activities.

Jai Hind

-

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City College

College of Nursing

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E.N.T.Hospital - II B

Erram Manzil

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Goverment Unani Hospital

King Koti Hospital